Buying farmers’ agricultural goods is out of bound

The government has refuted claims that it has been occasionally buying agricultural products on hire purchase prices from its farmers in the country, the deputy minister for Agriculture Mary Mwanjelwa has said. The deputy minister was responding a question in parliament today which was earlier raised by a special seat legislator Fakharia Shomary Hamisi (CCM) who w anted to know when the government will stop borrowing agricultural products from its farmers on loan basis in the country. Responding to her question, the deputy minister clarified that, the government has been paying debts owned by farmers and during the 2017/18 season, the government bought agricultural goods from farmers worth Tshs. 22.3 billion. She said that, the government is trying all it can in order to reduce the heavy debts it owned by farmers in the country including cashew nut farmers in southern regions of Mtwara and Lindi respectively. However, in another development, the deputy minister has cautioned farmers not to harvest their agricultural food crops which are still in their farms and noted that, whoever will be found doing that will be penalized according to the law. On the issue of the  prevalence of the armyworms which have been affecting agricultural crops in most parts in the country, the minister noted that, the government has received USD 250,000 from the World Bank (WB) to help reduced the prevalence of these worms in the country.