AfricaPress-Tanzania: GOVERNMENT plans to establish agricultural centres in all councils to bring extension services closer to farmers.
The plan is part of the measures to bring reforms into the sector as the centres will be supplied with mobile laboratories for soil testing and profiling.
Speaking in Parliament on Saturday in response to a number of issues raised by MPs in the agriculture sector, Deputy Minister of Agriculture Hussein Bashe said the laboratories will provide free service to all farmers, a move that will help them save up to 45,000/- they are currently being charged for soil analysis and profiling.
He said in the next financial year the government plans to disburse 7,000 motorcycles to all agriculture extension officers for them to help farmers in their areas.
“The extension officers will also be provided with tablets for them to file the reports on their daily activities,” he said.
He said the motorbikes will be installed with the GPS system for the sake of monitoring movement of extension officers and performance.
For her part, the Deputy Minister for Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development Dr Angelina Mabula admitted that 75 per cent of the land in the country is not surveyed.
According to her, only 2,346 plots and over 23,000 farms have been surveyed, assuring that efforts are underway to ensure the whole country is surveyed.
“In a bid to make better use of the land by ensuring all owners of the plots are paying government taxes. We shall be working closely with local government authorities,” she said.
The deputy minister insisted that; “All surveyed and non-surveyed plots are now subject to taxation, we ask all the owners to ensure they fulfill this responsibility accordingly,” she said.
Deputy Minister in the President’s Office (Regional Administration and Local Government) David Silinde assured the House on the ongoing move to review allocation of development budget for Tanzania Rural and Urban Roads Agency (Tarura).
He added that a total of 120 US dollars million have been allocated for the implementation of the second phase of Dar es Salaam Metropolitan Development Project (DMPD).
