THE Cereals and Other Produce Board (CPB) has set 100bn/- for buying agro products from local farmers in the 2023/2024 fiscal year all intended for value addition.
The target is to modernise the country’s farming from traditional production to the most rewarding sophisticated one that include cultivation mechanization, value addition of agricultural products, attaining stable research based market and inclusion of all stakeholders in commercialisation of farming.
CPB Chairman, Mr Salum Awadh said in Mwanza Region over the weekend during the symposium that brought together the Lake Zone’s agro stakeholders including farmers, agriculture associations and banks.
It was organised by the board in a bid to call them to action to tap collaboratively the emerging CPB opportunities especially new market and embracing improved farming technologies.
Mr Awadh said the board’s focus is to be the business focal point for value added cereals and other produces such as maize, rice, wheat, sorghum and beans.
With that perspectives it would transform small scale farmers’ entire production chain and having access to the market for their products, he said.
“We need to get farmers interconnected, formalised and informed… we shall achieve these by enabling them access CPB available infrastructures including warehouse, processing industries and markets,” Mr Awadh said.
He said so far the board has seven processing industries including one rice processing factory in Mwanza with ability to process 96 tonnes per day, two maize and sunflower processing factories in Dodoma Region, both capable of processing 60 tonnes per day.
CPB Acting Business Services Director, Mr Evans Mwanibingo noted that the seven available CPB processing industries in total in the country can refine about 445 cereals and other produces tonnes per day.
Mr Mwanibingo said the 100bn/- allocated by the board in the coming fiscal year, will result in the buying of 115,000 tonnes of cereals products including rice and maize.
He welcomed private sector including those venturing in to intensive cereals production to catch emerging opportunities for instance as supplier of raw materials to the board processing industries.
For her part, Director of Lilian ABC Company, Ms Lilian Herbert, of a company based in Simiyu Region venturing in sunflower refining asked the board to extend their technological support to local small scale processing agricultural product industries especially sunflower, as in most cases, they lack modern refining machines.
CPB is a government owned board that process and sell cereals including maize and wheat established to serve as the main source of stable market to farmers.