MINISTER for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Mwigulu Nchemba has ordered the reopening of Magena livestock auction market to enable farmers and other business people to trade in livestock and other items as well as increase Tarime township council income.
Mr Mwigulu issued the directive when
addressing a public rally at Serengeti grounds in Tarime town at the
weekend during his working tour in the region that was also attended by
Tarime Urban Legislator Esther Matiko and Tarime DC and several Tarime
councillors.
The minister said the directive came
after a plea from the area MP, Ms Matiko, who said that farmers and
livestock traders faced difficulties in their quest to access other
distant markets. Some travelled long distances to neighbouring Kenya in
search of customers.
According to the MP, the livestock
market was closed a couple of years ago by Tarime authorities over
environmental and economic reasons. Ms Matiko said despite the
shortcomings the newly established Tarime Township Council was facing
acute shortage of funds and hailed the government for the decision to
reopen the market. The move will enable the council to earn funds for
implementation of development projects.
“We salute the decision by the
government to announce the reopening of the livestock market because
traders were left with no other option except unofficial trading means
in open spaces where the actual revenues to the council were not well
collected,’’ she said.
The minister ordered the regional
security and safety organ to supervise and check all unscrupulous
middlemen who trade illegally in livestock across the Sirari Border. He
warned farmers to avoid selling their farm produce before the relevant
harvest seasons because this was only exposing them to additional losses
that could be avoided if they decided to sell in registered markets.
He called on local investors to work on
strategies to set up small processing industries for the mostly grown
products here such as bananas and cassava that will help add value and
manage to raise their incomes instead of depending on foreign markets
that are not easily accessible.
‘’We call upon local and any other
people from all walks of life to use the potential of favourable
climatic conditions in Tarime for grand and small scale farming to
produce food and cash crops that can be processed to add value and
quality for the benefit of our farmers and consumers.’’
He ordered the Tarime DC to supervise
the ongoing countrywide agricultural inputs supply to farmers so as to
ensure that the targeted beneficiaries get what they deserve and prevent
the tendency by some village leaders to divert inputs to individuals
who do not deserve this privileg
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