Tanzania: Government offers farmers the best prices for maize

Dodoma — THE Speaker of Parliament, Dr Tulia Ackson, has told Members of Parliament to advise maize farmers in their areas to sell their crops to the National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA), which provides better than prevailing market prices. She issued the call in the National Assembly on Thursday after the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Hussein Bashe, said NFRA buys maize at 800/- per kilogramme in regional centres and 600/- per kilogrammes in peripheral areas. "Farmers should be given government answers that maize are bought at 800/- per kilogramme," she said following a suggestion by a Member of Parliament for Mbozi, George Mwenisongole (CCM) that the House suspend activities to discuss plummeting maize prices due to what he claimed to be restrictions in issuing of food crop export permits. The Mbozi legislator said maize prices had gone down to 15,000/- per a 100kg bag. Agriculture Minister Bashe said the government had provided 320bn/- to NFRA for buying maize and rice as the ...