JPM vows to fight corrupt agro-input beneficiaries

Kibaha. President John Magufuli has pledged to tackle a myriad of challenges facing the agro-input sector in the country.

He said the challenges were as serious as those of ghost civil servants and students and deserved stern measures.

Dr Magufuli made the pledge on Wednesday in Kibaha during his tour of Coast Region.

The Head of State said the government has noted flaws in the farm-input distribution arrangement, whereby some farmers, who have been dead for over 20 years, have been being included, while some of the recipients were not genuine farmers.

The President was commissioning the Ursus Tractor Assembly Plant at Tamco in Kibaha Town, being the second day of his three-day-tour of the region.

He said he has already picked a three-man-team and assigned it to carry out an extensive investigation into the matter, saying there were many ghost farmers who must be exposed.

President Magufuli promised to shame the ghost farmers in public and institute legal proceedings against them.

“I’ve realised that even in agro-inputs there is fraud going on. We will end these problems just as we did with ghost civil servants and students. There are already people working on it and very soon we will make the list public,” sid the President.

Dr Magufuli explained that 80 per cent of Tanzanians depend on agriculture for their livelihood, but, he said, the sector was not growing fast enough because farmers still depend on rudimentary technology of using the hoe.

He observed that if farmers were to start using tractors, then the sector would make huge strides in growth, whereby farmers would reap more.

President Magufuli also wanted the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment and that of Agriculture to ensure that the prices of tractors would be affordable to most farmers.