Posted on September, 20, 2018 at 10:48 am
MAIZE farmers in the country have more reason to smile after the National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) yesterday announced that up to 15 billion/- has been set aside for purchase of the popular cereal during this harvesting season.
NFRA acting chief executive officer Vumilia Zikankuba told a media conference here yesterday that the agency will buy the grain at a price slightly upwards of prevailing market rates.
“We started buying maize in August. To begin with, we will purchase about 28,000 tonnes, which is equivalent to two per cent of the 970,000 of surplus maize harvested this season” Zikankuba said.
She explained that the agency will pay between 350/- and 388/- for each kg of maize harvested in Katavi and Ruvuma regions, compared to the current market price of 250/- in those regions.
NFRA will buy a kilo of maize at 420/- in Dodoma region, and 400 in Makambako-Iringa and Shinyanga regions, she said, adding
“Our prices are higher compared to the marketing process in most region because we do not want to take advantage of any market price drops to exploit the farmers”
Zikankuba challenged maize farmers across the country to stick to using quality seeds for the next cultivation, saying the agents will no longer buy poor quality grain.
“We will only go for high quality maize.... government funds will by no means be used to purchase poor quality maize” the NFRA boss asserted, while also reminding the farmers to also store some of the their produce for their own food.
The government in November last year lifted a ban on maize exports to East african Community (EAC) member states and other African countries in response to request from local farmers amid surplus harvests.
According to Agriculture Minister Dr Charles Tizeba, local farmers will be allowed to sell maize to markets of their choice but only with official permission from the ministry and the approval of their regional authorities.
Dr Tizeba explained that the exports ban was initially imposed to prevent food shortages in some parts of the country, amid deliberate efforts to control inflation.
He said the National Milling Corporation (NMC), which is currently under the National Cereal Board, would also start purchasing locally-produced maize for processing purpose at Iringa mill.
In June 2017, Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said a number of EAC countries has submitted request for maize from Tanzania after experiencing poor harvests at home. They included Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan.
Source: The Citizen