Tanzania: Farmers Urge End to Foreign Currency Use

Source from:  thecitizen.co.tz 10/17/2012

Tobacco farmers in Urambo District have asked the government to put in place strong regulations that will stop the use of foreign currencies in cotton and tobacco business transactions because most farmers are unaware of the current exchange rates. The farmers who were speaking before the Constitution Review Commission said most traders were paying them in US dollars, which, according to them was not proper since they failed to understand the actual value of their products.

"We do not understand the exchange rates…it takes us a long time to change it into Tanzania shillings. We, therefore, want the government to order these traders to stop paying us in foreign currencies," said Thomas Maganga, one of the farmers. He said the tendency was giving a loophole to traders to exploit farmers and that it was the responsibility of the government to protect its people from being exploited by greedy traders. He said the matter should also be stated in the coming new constitution. According to Mr Maganga, the Constitution must indicate that all business transactions should be conducted in Tanzanian shillings and not otherwise. Moreover, another farmer Juma Adam said the money was not reaching farmers in time and asked the government to deal with the problem for the welfare of farmers and the development of agriculture in the country. He added that the price of tobacco was being decided by people who did not understand procedures and principles of producing the crop. "We are getting a lot of problems here… even the prices are being decided by people in town who just relax in their offices at our expense. We suffer a lot trying to get fertilisers and other agricultural inputs. However, at the end of the day someone decides the price for us," said Mr Adam. Commenting on the matter, Mr Ramadhani Kifutumo said there was a need for the government to review investment policies and form new ones because such a move would ensure all parties benefit from the business.He said investors were using their cash to exploit wananchi because they have a monopoly in the market. Enditem