Tizeba warns suppliers of substandard maize seed

PETI SIYAME in Sumbawanga

THE Minister for Agriculture, Dr Charles Tizeba (pictured), has said that the Southern Highlands Zone regions are leading in the country for supplying and selling substandard and fake maize seeds causing serious consequences to farmers, including low productivity of the crop.

The regions on the list include Rukwa, Songwe, Mbeya, Njombe and Iringa. And, in additional to that, Dr Tizeba directed the Tanzania Official Seed Certification Institute (TOSCI) to inspect all shops that are selling agriculture inputs, including maize seeds in those regions the seeds sold to farmers.

Equally, he directed traders who are selling agricultural inputs when discovered selling fake maize seeds, their business licences will be revoked, their businesses shut and arraigned, insisting that the current shortage of modern maize seeds should not be taken as a loophole for the businesspeople to sell substandard seeds.

The Minister issued such directives on Tuesday here in the municipality during a oneday working tour in which he visited Kalambo and Nkasi districts where he inspected agricultural activities, he also told that fake maize seeds were a big headache to peasants and farmers in the precincts.

“Worse still, these five regions are champions of selling and supplying substandard seeds to farmers by mixing it with locally made paints and subsequently packing into bags with forged labels. A packet weighing 12 kilogrammes is sold at 7,000/- per each which is seven times of the official price…

“The evil practices have caused great harm to farmers; instead of harvesting 20 bags of maize per hector they are ending up getting only four … this has greatly discouraging them as they think that maize farming is unproductive and is a wastage of time and money,” he added.

He further gave an example of Rukwa Region in which the retail price of a bag of maize weighing 100kgs has plummeted drastically to 30,000/- in rural areas and 40, 000/- in urban areas, from the previous prices of 120,000/ due to various reasons including lack of reliable markets, so when farmers calculate the cost of production they become greatly demoralised.

Dr Tizeba said that farmers who will be supplied fertilizers dubbed DAP or UREA at above indicative government prices, should report the matter to the nearest police station.

“Actually, the government has decided to slot these fertilisers into a bulk procurement system and has set indicative prices so that dealers can adhere to government directives …… we are therefore calling upon DCS and all government leaders at various levels to play a supervisory role in ensuring that the indicative prices are observed,” he said.

On his welcoming note, the Rukwa Regional Commissioner (RC) Mr Joachim Wangabo told the Minister that maize farming is at the average of 43 per cent of all food crops cultivated in the precinct each farming season.