Africa-Press – Tanzania. THE government has adopted a new system of effecting payments to cotton growers after selling their produce to cooperative unions, the National Assembly was told.
Responding to a question from Esther Midimu (Special Seats-CCM), Deputy Minister of Agriculture Hussein Bashe explained that cotton farmers have long been paid for the sale of cotton on cash basis through their Cooperative Societies.
However, he said the system has been causing challenges to farmers, including theft and embezzlement by some cooperative officials for escaping with farmers’ money, especially in seasons embroiled with challenges in selling and buying cotton as it happened in 2019/2020 season.
“In addressing these challenges, the government in the 2020/21 season has piloted on trial basis, a system of payments to farmers through bank accounts and mobile money,” the deputy minister said.
The system, he said, has brought success where some banks including CRDB, NMB, Azania and NBC have enabled farmers to open bank accounts free of charge.
He said farmers also benefit from fee waiver include withdrawal fees on farmers’ accounts In addition, the deputy minister explained that despite such successes, there have been challenges in the use of the system due to the lack of bank branches in some areas close to farmers, inconsistent of bank statements and farmers ‘names and thus contributing to delaying farmers’ payments on time.
“To solve these challenges, in the 2021/2022 season, farmers’ money will be paid into Cooperative Bank Accounts in areas that do not have the challenges of lack of bank branches,” he said.
Furthermore, he said, the government would allow the use of all payment systems including the cash payment system (hard cash), especially where the environment does not allow them to make payments through banks and mobile networks.
In addition, the deputy minister pointed out that Cash Payment System would be administered by Cooperatives while the buyer will control any fraud that may occur, especially when payments are less than 10,000/-.
In her question the MP sought to know the procedure that the government will use to pay farmers who will sell cotton before the start of the crop season of May – July 2021.
