Local News

Agriculture officers warned of rogue voucher agents

ALL necessary documents should be submitted by agents of agricultural inputs as proof that they delivered them to farmers in their respective areas before payments  are made.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives (MAFSC) Senior Agriculture Officers, Mr Michael Mayabu and Ms Sarah Mlay, said in Lindi on   Saturday during a monitoring and evaluation exercise on distribution of inputs to farmers under National

Agriculture Inputs System (NAIS) funded by the government and World Bank."Before approving any payment for an agent, you must make sure they submit forms signed by farmers as proof of delivery of such inputs and receipts of where they bought the inputs," said Mr Mayabu who warned agents and District Agriculture and Livestock Development Officers (DALDOs) abusing the system.

Mr Mayabu was amazed to see over 500 forms signed by Lindi Rural farmers who were benefiting from the programme which had a lot of irregularities including some not signed by farmers and almost all of them attached in doubles.

"Does this mean that two farmers were going about collecting fertilizer or seeds from agents together and therefore signing the forms simultaneously?" Mr Mayabu wondered when acting Lindi Rural DALDO Matthew Kiula produced a heap of forms signed by agents which were still attached in pairs.

"In fact we have just received them this morning from the agent and have not gone through them yet," said Mr Kiula.He said his district had five agents of which only one had presented the inputs delivery forms signed by farmers.

"The rest of the agents were on the field collecting the forms to present to this office," Mr Kiula noted as Mr Mayabu was amazed to learn that some agents had already been paid even before such vital documents were delivered.

"Be careful and abide by government directives because if these irregularities are not rectified here someone will have to take full responsibility," Ms Mlay warned.The three-year World Bank and host government programme seeks to improve smallholder farmers' productivity from 96 districts in the country by supplying them with inputs such as fertilizer and hybrid seeds at half a price.