Prime
Minister Majaliwa told parliamentarians here yesterday that those cashewnut
farmers, who lost their crops while in storage, must question the cooperative
leadership and prosecute them in courts of law if the answers are not
satisfactory. Prime Minister Mjaliwa was responding to a supplementary question
from Tandahimba legislator, Katani Ahamed Katani (CUF), who wanted to know if
the government was ready to refund farmers who lost their crops while in
storage, claiming the government has put up small security bond.
The
premier said the system currently in operation was not managed by the central
government but by cooperative societies, whose leadership is elected by the
farmers who are the members of the societies.
He
concurred that there was poor leadership in cooperative societies managing the
cashewnut crop, but stressed that the central government is now keen on
ensuring the farmer and the government benefits from the crop.
"All
farmers who suffered losses of crops must hold their primary cooperatives such
as Agricultural Marketing Co-operative Societies (AMCOS) and others responsible
and if need be, they must take them to court so the law can take its
course," he explained.
Mr
Majaliwa said the courts will take the cooperatives leaders to task for abusing
their authorities to make farmers suffer loses, stressing that the same should
done to other crops such as coffee, tobacco and cotton.
"All
these cash crops will be managed under a system that we want to ensure is
profitable to farmers and the government in general, this includes removal of
unnecessary levies," Prime Minister Majaliwa said.
Responding
to the legislator during impromptu question session to the premier, where he
wanted to know when the government would remove 15 per cent market levy
collected from farmers, Prime Minister Majaliwa said the government has decided
to remove all unnecessary levies.
"The
taxes including the 15 per cent market levy were put in place to disrupt a good
system that was meant to help farmers profit from their crop, resulting to the
farmers hating the very system that was meant to help them make profit through
the cashewnut crop," he said noting that the 15 per cent market levy was
however on purchasing of packaging material.
"We
have also scrapped this levy because the responsibility purchasing packaging
material such as sacks will be under the Cashew Industry Development Trust Fund
(CIFDTF) which is responsible with development of the crops," the Premier
stressed.
The
premier said the CIFDTF whose contribution was mainly from export levy (65 per
cent) of the cashewnut crop, is well equipped to meet objectives put in place
by stakeholders including inputs sourcing and distribution, training and
extension services, supporting small and medium processors and supporting
cashew research activities.
CIFDTF
also is tasked with strengthening the cashew marketing system and investment
planning whereby it is currently embarking on establishing three new cashewnut
processing factories.
The
premier assured the MPs that the crop is now in the safe hands of the CIFDTF,
stressing that all the taxes have been removed.