What farmers expect from ministry’s budget today  

REPRESENTATIVES of farmers’ associations have flocked in Dodoma as Ministry of Agriculture 2023/24 budget is tabled in Parliament today.

They will be eager to see if their expectations will be met in the budget estimates for agriculture, the backbone of the economy.

The farmers who were supported by ActionAid Tanzania in partnership with Agricultural Non State Actors Forum (ANSAF) to travel to the country’s capital told the ‘Daily News’ that they were eager to see the plan for improved seedling for smallholder farmers so that they can boost harvests.

Others said, they expect to have good news on how they can have access to markets for their agricultural produce, have timely fertiliser subsidies, improved extension services as well as waiving of nuisance taxes and levies imposed on several crops including coffee development levy of 200/- per kilogramme of coffee.

According to Mr Samwel Kinunda, a farmer from Nyasa District, Ruvuma region, they were not engaged in decisions to impose development levy of 200/- on each kilogramme of coffee.

“This needs further discussion with stakeholders and a clear analysis on the impacts to farmers,” he said.

Also, the President of the Platform for Women Farmers in Tanzania, Ms Amina Senge said that in the next budget, the government should make sure that availability of proper seeds was highly prioritised.

Ms Senge who is a Singida based farmer gave an example of sunflower seeds in the last season which she said many farmers incurred loss because the seeds they received from the government did not yield as expected.

” However, we are glad that this year, we received improved seeds…but we still request that the government intensifies research on natural seeds which as smallholder farmers think can help us increase  harvests,” she added.

The Secretary General of the Platform for Women Farmers in Tanzania, Ms Anastazia Madeje asked the government to think of relocating extension officers’ duties from the President’s Office Regional Administration and Local Government (PO-RALG), to the ministry of Agriculture in order to bring services closer to people.