TANZANIA has enough food reserves of about 115per cent, which is adequate to save the country’s food shortage, with an excess of 2.3 tonnes in the National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA), Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa told the National Assembly on Friday.
Even as the country insists on enough food, the government says it has in the 2022/23 financial year allocated about 150bn/- in fertiliser subsidies that will benefit all farmers from across the country.
According to Mr Majaliwa, food demand which includes cereal and non-cereal food items in 2022/23 was over 15 million tonnes, whereas cereals accounted for 9.5 million tonnes while non-cereal food items stood at 5.5 million tonnes.
The Prime Minister was speaking in parliament yesterday when delivering his keynote address to postpone the eighth meeting of the House.
“If you compare the country’s demand and supply, our country has enough food by 115 per cent, with an excess of about 2.3 million tonnes, and in ensuring that food security remains intact, the government continues with its different food maintenance plans,’’ he added.
Among the plans according to the Premier were to empower NFRA to at least preserve 147,142 tonnes and above as well as continuing to buy food products and preserve them.
“I want to use this opportunity to urge all citizens to preserve the food reserves that they have, and if possible use it on the intended need,’’ said Mr Majaliwa amid applause from representatives in parliament.
The Premier further said that in preparations for the next season of agriculture in the 2022/23 financial year, the government was well prepared in providing all necessary agricultural inputs, especially fertiliser.
According to him, fertiliser use between 2019/20 and 2021/22, on average stood at 430,000. However, he added, as of August 31, 2022, availability of fertiliser had reached 213,403 tonnes, an equivalent of 49.6 per cent of average fertiliser use.
In what comes as good news, the Prime Minister said that President Samia Suluhu Hassan had agreed in the 2022/23 financial year to provide 150bn/- in fertiliser subsidies that would be provided at a low cost possible.
The provision of the subsidy by the Head of State, according to the Premier, aimed at boosting food security in efforts to have enough raw materials to complement the country’s industrialisation agenda.
“As of August 31, 2022, about 956,920 farmers had been registered to receive fertiliser subsidy and 60,882 tonnes of the consignment had been bought by farmers in the regions of Arusha, Iringa, Mbeya, Morogoro, Njombe, Rukwa, Ruvuma and Songwe.
On livestock, he said the sector has continued to grow annually, making Tanzania to be among the countries with a large number of livestock in Africa.
The situation has necessitated the high demand for reliable grazing and improved veterinary services because livestock keeping which does not consider the grazing area has caused inefficiency in livestock sector and being a source of disputes between livestock keepers and farmers.
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