Rukwa receives 1,500 tonnes of fertilisers

Casual labourers unload bags of fertiliser from a Tanzania People’s Defence Force truck at the facility of the Tanzania Fertilizers Company in Sumbawanga Municipality yesterday. PHOTO | MUSSA MWANGOKA

What you need to know:

Early in the week, President John Magufuli ordered that all regions facing shortage of fertilizers must be supplied with the same by Friday (yesterday)

Sumbawanga. Rukwa Region on Thursday received a total of 1,536 tonnes of urea fertilisers.

This comes after President John Magufuli issued a directive early this week that all regions reporting shortages of fertilisers should be sorted before Friday (yesterday).

An inspector from Tanzania Fertiliser Regulatory Authority (TFRA), Mr Allan Mariki, confirmed yesterday that 1,536 tonnes of urea and 120 tonnes of Diammonium phosphate (DAP) had indeed been received in the region and stored at Tanzania Fertilisers Company (TFC) facilities. He said the consignment was transported to Rukwa Region using military vehicles from Dar es Salaam. He added that another cargo of 150 tonnes of DAP fertilisers was expected to arrive soon.

However, he disputed the data from the regional agricultural offices which showed that Rukwa’s fertiliser requirements amounted to 120,000 tonnes. “The national demand for fertilisers is 120,000 tonnes. This is what the TFRA has been supplying to all regions. How comes this region demands 100,000 tonnes. This can’t be true,’’ he observed.

He said the Ministry of Agriculture is looking into ways of adding value to the cost of agricultural fertilisers on the market so as to boost its business and ensure that all farmers get enough supply of it. The director of Ikuo, one of the farming firms in Sumbawanga, Mr Shadrick Malila, proposed that for each price of fertilizers, there should be an added value of Sh1,000 so that it benefits more the farmers who come from remote areas.