DEPUTY Minister for Agriculture, Hussein Bashe has urged farmers in Rukwa and Katavi regions to embark on cultivating wheat as a cash crop to improve their livelihood and boost production in the country.
He also urged them to farm other cash crops such as soya beans instead of depending solely on maize for food and cash crop whose price at local and foreign markets is unstable.
Equally, the deputy minister directed councils through agriculture extension officers to identify farmers who prefer to farm wheat and the actual demands of the seeds.
Bashe made such remarks recently during his working tour in the regions where he inspected the ongoing maize purchasing exercises saying he was satisfied with the exercises.
“The government will scout the prospective buyers of the wheat crop like Bakhresa and Azania and make arrangements to sign a contract with farmers.
“You should remember that today farming is business, not a charity and always transformation is painful to endure at the start,” he said.
He also explained that despite being endowed with formidable weather and suitable land for wheat cultivation, yet it is disturbing to learn that Tanzania annually imported between 600,000 and 800,000 tons of wheat due to low production.
“Tanzania produces only 100,000 tons of wheat per year.
“The production doesn’t meet actual demand as 70 per cent consumed in the country is imported annually… The country spends 1.3tri/- on the importation of wheat, sugar, maize seeds and crude oil,” he added.
Meanwhile, the deputy minister urged Katavi and Rukwa regions to encourage their citizens to embark on the construction of ordinary but standard storage facilities at each village and wards at it were the case of construction of classrooms and other development projects on self-reliance spirit.