Posted on July, 5, 2023 at 09:54 am
Dar es Salaam. The government has warned against smuggling of subsidised fertilisers as it launches the distribution of the inputs for the 2023/24 farming season.
The distribution started in the 2022/23 farming season with the purpose of increasing productivity, food sufficiency and raw materials availability for domestic industries.
The government has approved Sh150 billion for subsidized fertilisers.
However, higher demand has pushed the government to spend Sh345.647 billion on subsidies by April 2023.
The amount which is Sh195.65 billion was higher than the Sh150 billion was used to procure 342.73 million tonnes of fertiliser.
The fertiliser benefited 782,553 farmers across the country, according to Agriculture Minister Hussein Bashe.
A public notice issued on July 01, 2023 by Tanzania Fertilisers Regulatory Authority (TFRA) says the government was working with stakeholders in regions bordering neighbouring countries to prevent smuggling of fertiliser.
The regions include Songwe, Rukwa, Katavi, Kigoma, Kagera, Kilimanjaro, Arusha, and several others.
The notice says there were still some unscrupulous traders who would deceive and procure fertiliser through farmer’s name and smuggle out fertilizers.
“This will jeopardise the country’s fertiliser sufficiency for the 2023/24 farming season and occasioning the government with a loss on subsidy funds intended to benefit farmers and increase the country’s production,” says the notice signed by TFRA Executive Director, Dr Stephan Ngailo.
“Stern warning is issued against a few traders who have such a behaviour or plans to smuggle subsidised fertiliser to neighbouring countries. Thye should not dare to do so because will take strong legal measure against them,” says Dr Ngailo in a statement.
The TFRA boss says whenever there is a need to trade fertiliser outside the country, dealers should follow export procedures contained in the country regulations and laws instead of engaging in smuggling out subsidised agricultural inputs.
Dr Ngailo said through subsidised fertiliser, the government believes that farmers will increase uptake, therefore increasing efficiency, food sufficiency and raw materials for strengthening the industrial economy.
“Therefore, agriculture experts and stakeholders are reminded to continue cooperating in educating farmers on proper use of fertiliser and other inputs according to the best agriculture principles,” he says in the notice.
He calls on authorities in the regional, districts and councils to cooperate in supervising distribution and utilisation of subsidized fertilizer to enable the government and farmers to realise their goals.
Subsidy prices
According to Dr Ngailo, the government has directed all fertilizers to be sold at the pan territorial pricing, noting that nobody will be allowed to trade fertilizer outside the subsidy programme.
“Therefore, the difference between the indicative price in every place of the country and the actual price paid by farmers will be carried by the government as a subsidy aimed at reducing cost edges,” he says.
Indicative prices
Documents showing indicative prices posted on the TFRA website shows that despite the fact that all fertilizers will be sold at the pan territorial pricing, imported fertiliser such a NPK, CAN, SA, Urea, DAP etc will fetch lowest prices in Temeke Municipality Council (MC).
This is because of its proximity to the Dar es Salaam Port which is the importation gateway and that prices will proliferate corresponding to the increase in distance to different regions.
The name of fertilizers and price for a 50 kilogramme bag in brackets are; NPK (Sh70,000); CAN (Sh60,000); SA (Sh50,000); Urea (Sh70,000) and DAP (Sh70,000).
Others are: Yaramila Otesha (Sh70,000); Top Dressing (Sh62,000); Yaramila Cereals (Sh70,000) and Nafaka Plus (Sh62,000).
Source: The Citizen