Rice mills owners in Mbarali District, Mbeya region have said the quantity of rice produced by farmers in the district does not satisfy their factories' needs to be able to operate throughout the year.
The chairman of the district’s Rice Millers Association, Venance Mgeni, said any kind of factory needs to be certain of the availability of raw materials, but rice mills in Mbarali district depend on the raw materials from small farmers who do not produce much.
Mgeni appealed to the government to conduct a census to identify which farms remain idle in order to give them to mills owners so that they also participate in rice farming for their mills.
He said due to the shortage of raw materials many rice mills operate seasonally, the situation that makes their operation problematic including denying people reliable employment.
Mbarali district commissioner ,Reuben Mfune, said last season’s rice harvests were not good due to short rains even though total acreage under rice cultivation exceeded the district’s targets.
He said the district had estimated to harvest 555,720 tonnes of rice from 125,388 hectares but this target was not realised due to little rainfall.
He said some of the farms in the district rely on irrigation but due to the inadequate rains affected rivers and therefore we had no enough water for irrigation.
The DC appealed to owners of the rice mills to unite in addressing the challenges facing them and the government will continue to support them.
