Food stocks in Tanzania rise to new six-year high

Dar es Salaam. Tanzania’s food reserves surged to a six-year high after the National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) procured more maize for food security.

According to the Bank of Tanzania (BoT), reserves of maize and sorghum in the state agency reached 192,408 tonnes in October this year – the highest level since December 2015.

The amount is also above the planned annual target of purchasing 165,000 tonnes for the year 2021/22.

The BoT’s Monthly Economic Review (MER) reports indicate that, in November 2015, the NFRA had reserves of 238,133.6 tonnes which then dropped to about 180,746.3 tonnes in December that year.

It has since then been below the level until this year where it set a new highest stock level was achieved.

This was also attributed by the NFRA’s efforts to keep the price of maize in check, as concerns were prices had fall to the lowest levels in 2021.

According to the minister for Agriculture, Prof Adolf Mkenda, before August 2021, farmers in the producing regions of Ruvuma, Njombe, Songwe, Mbeya, Rukwa and Katavi, farmers were selling maize for as low as Sh250 a kilogramme, a low price that affected their livelihoods and welfare.

This called for immediate action, and NFRA started procuring maize at Sh500 a kilo in the market.

University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM)’s Prof Humphrey Moshi said the strategy to procure and store grains is to look at the welfare of smallholder farmers, and motivate them to farm for the next harvest season.

He said by purchasing large volumes of maize in surplus regions and selling at subsidized prices to deficit areas the agency also ensure satisfactory distribution of food across the regions in Tanzania.

“By purchasing ample grains the government also ensures food security and when a country is food sufficient then even the economic development is achieved,” said Prof Moshi.

Prof Moshi said by storing large amount of food a country can also be facilitated with processing industries which will add value to the raw agriculture product at the same time offer employment opportunities.

As a state agency the NFRA is mandated to perfume price stabilization by purchasing reserves to keep price in check, this helps to protect farmers’ incomes and mitigate the effect of steep price rises on consumers.

A senior consultant and economist, Prof Samuel Wangwe, said in other note the food emergency reserves are intended to guarantee availability in situations of extreme weather or other disasters.

He said such reserves can help protect the most vulnerable populations.

“It is also very costly to purchase such large stock of food, and there is also an issue of finding big storage facilities to store it,” said Prof Wangwe.

His cost concerns has also agreed with Prof Moshi’s comments on how on some occasions there is a delay of payments to the farmers from the government.

Prof Moshi said that “These farmers have obligations such as sending their children to school and such, if they are not receiving payment on time they will be forced to sell it quick at the free market where prices are low,”

This however, is expected to not be the case on this year purchasing plans as government had injected a lot of funds to the NFRA.

While adjourning Parliament in Dodoma in September 2021, Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said the government had approved Sh50 billion that would be spent on maize from farmer