TANZANIA Fertilizers Regulatory Authority (TFRA) has assured farmers of a timely availability of fertilizers ahead of the coming farming season, asking them to make better use of government subsidies in increasing their harvests.
In the current fiscal year 2022/23 the government through the ministry of Agriculture has allocated 150bn/- to specifically subsidize fertilizers prices, a move that aims to help farmers increase their harvest for the sector to have an improved contribution to the economy.
Speaking during the ongoing Agriculture exhibitions in Mbeya, the TFRA Executive Director Dr Stephen Ngailo said the authority is well prepared to facilitate the process throughout the farming season.
He said, already there is a sufficient volume of fertilizer that has arrived in the country await for dispatch to the farmers upon accomplishment of the procedures as required,
He said, in June, the authority received a total of 98,000 tonNEs of fertilizers. There are another 6,000 tonnes of urea and 12,500 others of DAP have arrived at the port of Dar es Salaam.
"By end of this month we shall receive 30,000 more tonnes of DIP, Farmers are assured of the availability of the fertilizers, all needed is for them to register themselves in order to get the price that is under government subsidy," he said.
Dr Ngailo also said, Tanzania has increased its local capacity of manufacturing fertilizers, a move that assures farmers with ease accessibility of the g input for an improved harvest.
According to him, last year, there were a total of 62,000 tonnes of fertilizers that were manufactured within the country, this year the number will go up.
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This year the Minjingu Fertilizer Company will provide 70,000 tonnes that will be sold under subsidization arrangement, and they expect to have fertilizer from the Intracom factory being built in Dodoma that will offer over 100,000 tonnes," he noted.
According to him, the actual demand of fertilizer in Tanzania stands at an average of 700,000 tonnes however in the last farming season the consumption was only 450,000 tonnes.
He was optimistic that with the ongoing weather trend, there will be an increase in demand for fertilizer compared to last year.
"I'm calling on farmers through their cooperative unions and their Agricultural Marketing Cooperative Society (Amcos) to ensure they are registered on time to the system so that they cannot miss the fertilizer once the season kicks off," he said.
Speaking in the Parliament when tabling the 751bn/- budget for the ministry of Agriculture for the year 2022/23, minister of the docket Hussein Bashe said the government's decision to allocate the subsidization budget was to enable farmers' access agricultural inputs at affordable price.
However, he said the subsidy arrangement will not be permanent; instead, it will be issued seasonally depending on how world events cause unexpected imported inflation affecting the country's economy.
