Tanzania: Help On the Way for Tobacco Farmers

Source from:  Tanzania Daily News (Dar es Salaam) 05/30/2013

THE government has formed a special committee to investigate various challenges facing tobacco farmers, including assessing the actual debts they owe primary cooperative unions.

The Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Food and Cooperatives, Mr Adam Malima, told the National Assembly that the move is aimed at finding lasting solutions to challenges facing farmers especially in Tabora Region.

He was responding to a question by Mr Shaffin Sumar (Tobara North-CCM), who wanted to know whether the government does not consider the presence of APEX (Tanzania Tobacco Co-operative Apex Ltd) and its activities of supplying tobacco seeds at exorbitant prices as an act of exploiting farmers.

He said the same company continues to deduct some earnings from farmers' income and still made a lot of profit unnecessarily through farm inputs sold to farmers. He also wanted to know ways in which a cooperative union that has withdrawn its membership from APEX would be able to get loans from the government.

Mr Malima admitted that tobacco farmers have been exploited by their leaders through their cooperative unions. He added that the exploitation is done in collaboration with some unscrupulous bank employees during construction of warehouse and supply of farm inputs.

"In finding answers to the problem, the government has formed a special committee under the leadership of the Tabora Regional Commissioner, of which among other things, will assess actual farm debts which have actual relation with loans borrowed in the primary cooperative unions," he said.

He added that the committee is expected in its findings to come up with an alternative system that will allow farmers through their primary cooperative unions to borrow farm inputs from suppliers. Enditem