The minister for agriculture, Charles Tizeba, has said that the Southern Highlands Zone regions are leading in the country for supplying and selling substandard and fake maize seeds causing serious consequences to farmers, including low productivity of the crop.
The regions on the list include Rukwa, Songwe, Mbeya, Njombe and Iringa. And, in additional to that, Tizeba directed the Tanzania Official Seed Certification Institute (TOSCI) to inspect all shops that are selling agriculture inputs, including maize seeds in those regions. Equally, he directed traders who are selling agricultural inputs that when discovered selling fake maize seeds, their business licences will be revoked and their businesses shut and arraigned, insisting that the current shortage of modern maize seeds should not be taken as a loophole for the businesspeople to sell substandard seeds.
