Posted on September, 8, 2023 at 07:30 am
THE government has vowed that subsidized fertiliser will reach farmers timely as the distribution of the input has commenced this September.
Agriculture Deputy Minister David Silinde made the statement in Dar es Salaam on Wednesday evening when visited the Yara Tanzania Ltd as part of the ongoing Africa Food Systems 2023 Summit.
“The ministry has planned to increase supply of fertilizer in the country. This is why the distribution of fertilizer starts in September so as this input could reach the farmers at the earliest,” Mr Silinde remarked.
He added that planting and top-dressing fertilizers as well as farming inputs will start to be distributed in various parts of the country to enable farmers purchase them, this is part of the government’s commitment to transform the agriculture sector by ensuring that inputs are supplied on time.
During his meeting with the management of the Yara Company Limited, the two discussed about how the company could establish fertiliser factory in the country as yet another move to boost availability of the input.
The meeting was also attended by Norwegian Minister for International Development, Ms Anne Beathe Tvinnereim.
“Fertiliser production is the process, there are short- and long-term strategy, so the long-term strategy includes setting up industries while the short-term strategy is to increase the supply,” the deputy minister stated.
He said the government through the Ministry of Agriculture ensures that it accords cooperation to the Yara Tanzania company, which is one of biggest fertilizer suppliers in the country.
For her part, Ms Tvinnereim, commended Tanzania for hosting the Africa Food Systems Forum which has attracted over 3000 participants from various parts in Africa and globe.
She said Norway is committed to being long-term partner to work with Tanzanian government.
She said the Norwegian government has issued an additional funding of 9.3 million US dollars to further support the agricultural initiatives to cushion to high prices of commodities as the result of the global crisis including the Russia-Ukraine war .
The funding will go to the projects for climate adaption, among others, is the Tanzania Social Action Fund (TASAF), climate change and food security.
Yara has been in Tanzania for years, ensuring that farmers have fertilizers, access to crop nutrition programs, and access to technology that increase yields, improve product quality and reduce the environmental impact of agricultural practices.
Yara President and CEO, Mr Svein Tore Holsether, said the company will continue expanding investments to support growth in the Tanzanian agricultural sector.
She noted that fertilizer is an important nutrition to the farm and that the company will continue implementing initiatives to strengthen supply of the input.
“We import key nutrients and process them by adding more nutrients so as to come up with final product to help boost farm produce. When you have healthy soil full with required nutrients, climate change and severe weather cannot be huge threats,” he said.
Yara has partnered with several other organizations in Tanzania alone – NGOs, government and agribusiness companies to transfer knowledge and make quality fertilizer more accessible.
Source: Daily News