Posted on October, 13, 2021 at 10:11 am
AGRICULTURE Deputy Minister Hussein Bashe has successfully resolved 20 land disputes between several cooperatives societies and investors who hired their farms in Kilimanjaro region.
Mr Bashe made the revelation during a special session organized to discuss the report of a committee set up to investigate the conflicts between co-operative societies and investors in the area.
Speaking shortly after the completion of the exercise that involved presenting a report which involved leaders of cooperatives, investors and the Central and Kilimanjaro regional Government officials, Mr Bashe said that what remained was the co-operative to ensure they receive government advice before entering into various contracts with any investor(s).
"If you get professional advice from co-operative experts on the agreements you want to enter, you will keep off conflicts of this kind that undermine co-operative development," he said.
Equally, Mr Bashe advised co-operative leaders to ensure they expand the operational scope of their institutions and have a more commercial orientations.
"I believe in co-operatives that are commercially viable... change your mindset now and apply a commercial based co-operative concept that is now more productive worldwide", he said.
He added, "Do not dwell on the old-fashioned notion of corporate income-based co-operative societies; build knowledge to invest in other areas other than relying on revenues from various types of coffee levies and incomes from leasing your farms".
He said it was surprising to see that many cooperatives had a similar trend, adding that almost all co-operative societies based on the same idea of leasing the farms they own to investors.
"Why don't you think of investing in your own farms; and why aren't there any tangible investments invested in the income you earn from renting your farms?" questioned Mr. Bashe.
The Deputy Minister continued to say that after resolving the disputes, the Government was now planning to come up with another step that would focus on monitoring the operations of the cooperatives with the aim of ensuring that they work as expected.
"We will come back to monitor how you run your co-operative entities; we will want to know how you spend the money you earn from renting your farms", he said.
He added, "A large percentage of the parties depend on the income from renting their farms but if you track the use of that money, you will find it ends up paying for the meeting sessions only after they finish the money, they wait for another revenue which will be accrued from new contracts; this government will not tolerate that trend, we want to see that you re-invest the income you earn for the betterment of all members."
Expressing his gratitude to the government, the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Hai Constituency, in Kilimanjaro Region Mr Saashisha Mafue, said that the resolution of the conflicts was one of the major steps in the development of the cooperative sector in Kilimanjaro region.
Source: Daily News