Farmers` stimulus plan ready - govt

A ‘stimulus plan’ to rescue the agricultural sector from the deepening global economic crisis is ready, the government announced yesterday.

Finance and Economic Affairs deputy minister Omar Yusuf Mzee broke the good news for farmers, representing over 80 per cent of the country’s 40 million population, when answering a question in the annual budget meeting which opened yesterday.

He said the plan, to address the crisis whose impact is now felt by thousands of local cash crop farmers will be announced today or tomorrow.

He was responding to a supplementary question posed by Alloyce Kimaro (Vunjo, CCM), who demanded a government statement regarding measures taken to rescue coffee and other farmers from the deepening global economic turbulence.

“As I indicated in my response to the basic question, the government understands that our farmers have started feeling second round effects of the crisis due to decreasing capacity of western countries to buy from Tanzania and other countries,” noted Mzee.

As part of measures to rescue the farmers, said the deputy minister, the government “will announce today or tomorrow” a stimulus plan for the country’s lead sector, to benefit among others, coffee and cotton farmers.

Mzee informed the House that a special task-force headed by Bank of Tanzania Governor Prof Benno Ndulu that was formed to work on the impact of the crisis on farmers, submitted its report last week.

“I would like to assure the MP that he will hear from the government tomorrow or Thursday,” insisted the deputy minister.

Earlier, answering the basic question from Mohamed Ali Said (Mgogoni, CUF) who sought government statement regarding the impact of the crisis on the country’s economy, Mzee said the local economy was not affected by the crisis during the early stages.

He explained that the local economy was free from initial stages of the crisis due to less or no reliance of local banks on the international financial market, strict banking procedures and the fact that local financial institutions borrow small, less than 10 per cent, from abroad.

However, Mzee said the impact of the global economic crisis was evident, wreaking havoc on most cash crop farmers due to declining demand in America and Europe triggered by low capacity of buyers there.

The global economic crisis has devastated many sectors in the country, and so far its far reaching impact has affected the fishing industry, tourism, mining and cash crop farming.
The crisis emerged last September with the failure or merger of several large United States based financial firms.

It later manifested itself in the insolvency of more companies, recession and declining stock market prices around the globe. Since last year, the crisis has rapidly developed and spread into a global economic shock.

The recent initiative by world leaders to address the issue was through the G20 Summit in London, which brought together leaders from countries accounting for 90 per cent of the world’s gross domestic product.

So far, two multilateral institutions-the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have pleaded support to Dar es Salaam’s bid to face the crisis.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN