The government of Tanzania has announced plans to import dressing fertilizer that will be sold to farmers at a normal price. The country’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan, made the announcement and said this will serve as a relief to farmers as they have been facing a shortage of fertilizer caused by a decline in production due to Covid-19 and other reasons.
“The government is aware of the challenges facing the agriculture sector, especially shortage of fertiliser that was caused by decline in production as a result of Covid-19,” she said.
As part of efforts to guarantee availability of fertiliser, the government continued to attract investors, whereas currently a Burundian firm, INTRACOM, is constructing a fertilizer factoryin Dodoma.
Meeting demands
Currently the INTRACOM Fertilizer Ltd is building a big factory in Dodoma that will have an annual capacity of 500,000 tonnes equal to 70% of the annual demand. President Samia also revealed that the Dangote Industries Limited has shown an intention of installing a UREA fertiliser factory in Mtwara region.
Earlier, President Samia also noted that during the year 2021, the government managed to boost capacity of the Tanzania Agricultural Development Bank (TADB) by providing 208bn/- so that it could reach more farmers and finance them. She also talked of opening crops trading centres in different countries and regions.
“We also managed to remove some of the trade barriers and establish new markets and open crop trading centres in Kenya, South Sudan, China, India, Ukraine, European Union, Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries and Saudi Arabia. The country also managed to enhance its multilateral cooperation that enabled Tanzania to participate in a number of international forums and air our opinion and views,” added the President.
