Agriculture mechanisation: Bashe wants private dealers registered

Madaba. Agriculture minister Hussein Bashe has ordered the registration of all private dealers involved in agricultural mechanisation.

This move aims to improve service monitoring for Tanzanian farmers and establish a system for taxing these dealers who are blamed for imposing heavy charges on farmers.

Mr Bashe issued the directives on Thursday, September 19, 2024, in Madaba District, during his ongoing tour of the Ruvuma Region.

After inspecting the district's maize trading station, Mr Bashe said the government is committed to revolutionising the county's agriculture through increased use of agromechanics.

However, he said the government’s efforts have been deterred by private dealers overcharging farmers when leasing tractors, escalating production costs.

"In Peramiho, farmers pay up to Sh120,000 per acre for leasing a tractor. Likewise, in Madaba, a tractor is leased at a cost ranging between Sh80,000 and Sh120,000, respectively, which is extremely high," he told farmers during a rally.

"These charges have been excessively increasing farmers’ operational costs, leading to their failure to record meaningful and impactful benefits from investments and dedications they are making to the sector," he added.

He said the registration of mechanisation players will enable the ministry to closely monitor and protect the interests of farmers and, most importantly, include them among people who are liable for taxation.

“Therefore, everybody who participates in the activity will be registered and pay withholding tax because they are doing business,” he told the gathered farmers.

Mr Bashe said the government plans to procure 10,000 tractors by 2030 that will be allocated to different mechanisation centres where farmers will access services at subsidised prices.

“The district’s mechanisation centre will be built at Ngadinda Village. Once it commences operations, the cost of leasing a tractor will go down to Sh40,000 per acre,” he said.

The minister said a survey has informed the ministry that dealers get profits when they charge between Sh35,000 and Sh40,000 per acre.

Furthermore, he said in the mechanisation centres, farmers will be provided with other services such as extension, soil testing, fertiliser distribution, seed procurement, and irrigation consultancy, among others.

According to him, subsidised agriculture mechanics services were a continuation of the government's efforts to lower production costs incurred by farmers.

"President Samia Suluhu Hassan's administration started by approving the provision of subsidised fertilisers. The government’s decision is now extended to crop seeds starting with maize seeds that will be distributed on subsidy starting this season," he said.

"The introduction of agriculture mechanisation subsidies will further reduce costs incurred by farmers. All these subsidies will continue in the next two years until when farmers’ capacity to actively compete in the market has been fully built,” added Mr Bashe.

A farmer and resident of Mahanje Village, Ms Theresia Luambano, commended the government decision to register private players of agricultural mechanisation, saying the move would liberate the country's agriculture.

"The decision will reduce the burden of paying Sh80,000 to Sh120,000 for a tractor per acre. This relief will change farmers’ mindsets and start thinking about expanding their farms," he said.

Another farmer and a resident of Madaba Village, Mr Cotas Mbilinyi, echoed the sentiments, saying it is high time the players in the area paid tax like individual farmers.

"We need to build an equitable nation where every individual pays tax and supports the country’s economic development instead of just a few. While the majority of poor farmers are taxed, these players have been pocketing and enjoying generated revenue in the raw form,” he said.

For his part, another farmer and resident of Madaba Village, Mr Vitus Mgina, said the government's plan was commendable.

"Higher production costs have been limiting farmers from expanding their farms. However, with ongoing government initiatives, the majority will start thinking big," he said.