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| Minister for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Dr. Charles Tizeba. |
Others are Acting Director of Deep Sea Fishing Authority (DSFA), Rashid Hoza, Songea NFRA Director for Marketing, Mikalu Mapunda, NFRA Logistic and Operations Director, Anna Ngoo and Songea NFRA Manager, Jeremiah Mtafya. He has also removed from the post, Head of Uyole Agricultural Research Institute (ARI), Dr Zakaria Mally.
Dr Tizeba said they have decided to suspend mentioned officials to pave way for investigations - to establish truth of various allegations and remove Dr Mally to improve operations at the ARI. “Officials from NFRA have given us false information regarding maize reserves in Songea, Dodoma and Sumbawanga regions and failed to provide data for tonnes of decayed maize,” he explained.
He further revealed that the officials had also lied about permits from the Tanzania Bureau Standards (TBS) and Tanzania Food and Drugs Authority (TFDA) to sell the decayed reserve to members of the public as animal feeds.
According to the minister, NRA officials claimed that the permits were not issued by the two institutions, something which was not true as the institutions issued the permits. On permits to export and import food crops, Dr Tizeba said procedures to export and import were violated and there was no consideration of 2015/16 harvest evaluation. “Before issuing permits, we need to make sure we have enough food reserves in the country.
But we have learnt that in Mantra, Shinyanga and Kagera, the DNFS Director has been issuing permits for almost eight months for businesspeople to export food crops without following laid down procedures,” he explained.
The minister has, therefore, given the department responsible for an evaluation of harvest in the ministry two weeks to finish the process of establishing ‘real food security situation in the country’. Dr Tizeba said he had suspended Mr Hoza because of poor administration in deep sea fishing sector in which there were more than 105 licensed fishing vessels from outside the country, which have been discarding bycatch at sea against the set conditions of the licence.
Bycatch, in the fishing industry, is a fish or other marine species that is caught unintentionally while catching certain target species and target sizes of fish, crabs etc. Bycatch is either of a different species, the wrong sex, or is undersized or juvenile individuals of the target species.
He also directed all licensed fishing vessels to discard all by-catch in Mtwara or Dar es Salaam otherwise their licences will be revoked.“Many foreign fishing ships come to fish in our country because of the available fish and weak regulations in licensing.
They pay 50,000 US dollars to fish tuna. But we cannot monitor the whole fish catch,” the minister reveal. Dr Tizeba said that reforms in the marine services were required so that Tanzania can earn more revenue, advising DSFA to review its licensing regulations alongside possible revival of the Tanzania Fishing Company (TAFICO). He elaborated that they had also observed that things were not running properly at ARI.
“Therefore, Dr Mally would be sent back to Selian Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) to continue with other research activities; to be replaced by Dr Arnold Msongi from the Ilonga Agricultural Research Institute,’’ the minister told reporters.
Dr Tizeba has meanwhile appointed Mr Hosea Gonza, who is the Director for Fisheries Development Division, as Acting Director of DSFA before the president appoints a new holder of the post. The DNFS Director will be replaced by Mr Eliampaa Kiranga. The NFRA CEO will be replaced by Mr Deusdedit Mpazi who before the appointment was Songea NFRA Manager.
Daily News
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