Tanzania Starts Buying Maize Stockpiles

By Xinhua 

Sep 15, 20210

A Tanzanian government senior cabinet minister said on Tuesday that authorities have bought 90,000 tons of stockpiled maize in one day across the country.

Adolf Mkenda, Minister for Agriculture, told a news conference in the capital Dodoma that the 90,000 tons of maize were bought on Monday by state-run National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA).

Mkenda said NFRA has started buying the stockpiled maize in seven maize growing regions of Ruvuma, Rukwa, Njombe, Songwe, Mbeya, Katavi and Iringa.

The minister said farmers have in the 2020/2021 season produced a total of six million tons of maize, which is almost double the country’s demand for the food drop.

On Friday last week, Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa told parliament that the government has released an additional 50 billion Tanzanian shillings (about 21.6 million U.S. dollars) for buying maize stockpiles.