DC pushes for farmers fertiliser subsidy registration

TANGANYIKA District Commissioner (DC) in Katavi region, Mr Onesmo Buswelu has issued a seven-day ultimatum to agriculture extension officers to ensure all farmers are registered for subsidised farm input through door-to-door campaign.

The same instructions were directed to the district administration leaders and village and ward executive officers as only 13,478 have been registered out of 75,230 farmers targeted in the district.

Mr Buswelu issued the directives early this week while opening the new farming season, stressing that the initiative aims at ensuring farmers make better of better use of subsidies in boosting their harvest during next crop growing season.

“Farmers must register themselves on time to the system to get access to the agricultural inputs at affordable price and boost crops output,” noted the DC.

He explained that under the system subsidised fertilisers have their bags marked with a barcode and a specific label to differentiate it from unsubsidised fertilisers.

“Farmers are assured of the availability of the fertilisers, all needed is for them to register themselves in order to get the price that is under government subsidy,” he said.

The DC told the gathering that under the subsidy arrangement a bag of DAP that was sold at 150,000/- now will cost 70,000/- only while that of Urea which used to fetch 140,000/- will cost 70,000/-.

Others on the list including CAN that was sold for 120,000/- will now cost 60,000/- where as SA that used to fetch 80,000/- will now cost 50,000/-.

“Under this arrangement the government will pay for 52,000/- subsidy,” emphasised Mr Buswelu.

On his side, Tanganyika District Agriculture and Cooperatives Officer, Jaliwa Ntibiyoboka said during the 2022/23 farming season farmers in the district are projected to cultivate 125,122 half of farmland which they estimated to realise 478,601 tonnes of various food crops against 436,131.37 tonnes harvested 2021/2022 season.

Likewise the Tanzania Fertilisers Regulatory Authority (TFRA) has assured farmers that there are sufficient fertilisers for the coming farming season asking them to make better use of government subsidies in boosting their harvests.

In 2022/23 the government through the Ministry of Agriculture has allocated 150bn/- to subsidise fertilisers prices so as to help farmers increase their crop output to have an improved contribution to the economy.

Additionally, TFRA’s Executive Director Dr Stephen Ngailo assured farmers of a timely availability of fertilisers ahead of the coming farming season.