Our Correspondent
The Agricultural Non-State Actors Forum (ANSAF) coordinated a discussion meeting on grain improvement and storage for smallholder farmers in Tanzania, which included farming stakeholders from the private sector and government leaders.
Smallholder farmers Juriana Mashasha from Gairo District and Salum Kindo from Tanganyika District, who participated in the meeting, mentioned the challenge of the high cost of quality grain storage bags – PICS Bags known as (Kinga Njaa), continues to face them.
“We are asking the Government to reduce the cost of PICS Bags (Kinga Njaa) so that we can afford to buy”, said small farmer Juriana Mashasha.
Juriana Mashasha: a small farmer from the Gairo district.
Speaking to journalists after the training held in Morogoro Region, the Executive Director of (ANSAF) Honest Mselly said that small farmers have been facing a major challenge in preserving their crops after harvest, which has led to their crops being damaged by insects, which has led to food loss.
Honest Mselly added, “We advise the Government to remove or reduce the Value Added Tax (VAT) in the bags to bring relief to small farmers”.
Honest Mselly: Executive Director of (ANSAF)
Zacharia Chacha Nyahende projects officer from HELVETAS said that, due to this challenge they have come up with a project to improve and store grain for small farmers with various goals including providing farmers with education so that they realize the importance of good bags to store their grains after harvesting.
However, Eng Evelius Vedasto, an Agricultural Engineer from the Ministry of Agriculture in Tanzania, said, the Government has continued to make various efforts to enable small farmers to obtain grain storage areas (grain warehouses) to boost the economy of farmers.
