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DAR ES SALAAM Tanzania (Xinhua) --
The Tanzanian government said Monday it had
lifted a ban on maize exports to the East African Community (EAC)
and other African countries following an outcry from farmers
amid surplus harvests.
Charles Tizeba,
Minister for Agriculture, directed regional and district
executives to put in place proper mechanisms to ensure the
exports were done legally.
“Let farmers sell
maize to markets of their choices, but they will have to seek
permits from the ministry and approval from regional leaders,”
he told the National Assembly in Dodoma.
He said Members of
Parliament have since the beginning of the ongoing parliamentary
meetings complained about the huge grain stocks following bumper
harvests.
The government has
for a long period sustained the ban on export of maize on
grounds including shortage of food in some parts of the country
as well as a deliberate move to bring the inflation down.
Tizeba also said
purchasing of maize through National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA)
will resume soon as the government has already mobilized funds
for the exercise.
“Our collected data
showed that there is huge maize stock in farmer’s hand. The past
farming season was a blessing as food production was over 123
percent”, said Tizeba.
In June, Tanzanian
Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa told the Parliament the ban on
maize exports was there to stay as spot checks showed a number
of regions within the country were facing food shortages.
Majaliwa said that
various countries in the EAC experienced poor harvests and
requested for maize from Tanzania including the Democratic
Republic of the Congo (DRC) and South Sudan.
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EARLIER REPORT:
Tanzania unveils strategies to
increase sisal production
ARUSHA Tanzania (Xinhua) --
Tanzanian sisal stakeholders on Monday laid down
strategies during an ongoing global sisal meeting to boost the
current annual production of 36,000 tonnes to 80,000 tonnes by
2022.
The strategies
include taking advantage of the bigger market, which has been
expanded by the diverse use of sisal, and sensitizing farmers on
the need to open new plantations.
Speaking on the
sideline of the meeting held in the northeastern Tanzania’s
region of Tanga, Director General of the Tanzania Sisal Board
(TSB) Yunus Mssika said in the 1960s, sisal output stood at more
than 200,000 tonnes per year and accounted for 65 percent of the
country’s total agricultural export.
“That’s why we’re
challenging the crop stakeholders who attended the global sisal
meeting to work hard to make sure that they turn around the
situation and go back to the glory days when sisal was the cash
crop of choice for farmers and a cash cow for the government,”
the official said.
Statistics show
until 2015, sisal production in Tanzania stood at 40,000 tonnes,
before slumping to 36,753 in 2016, the official said, noting
that in the 1960s sisal was mainly used for the manufacturing of
carpets, bags and ropes.
However, the market
was later outshone by the invention of synthetic fiber, leading
to the fall of the crop and abandonment of many plantations in
Tanzania.
“The use has since
grown from the traditional ones to include composite automobile
industries and construction where sisal fibers are used to
increase gypsum’s fire-insulation performance, because of their
tensile strength,” he said. |
