Pay tobacco farmers in cash-Sitta

The Speaker of the National Assembly, Samuel Sitta

The Speaker of the National Assembly, Samuel Sitta, has instructed tobacco buyers to pay in cash when purchasing the crop from farmers instead of the prevailing notorious payments in terms of inputs.

Sitta who is also the Urambo East parliamentarian told local entrepreneurs here that tobacco buying companies were initially accepted by the Government as buyers of the commercial crop and not suppliers of inputs.

He said already a number of experts from the ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives have been sent to tobacco growing areas to see how best to address the situation.

Tobacco farmers told their Hon. Sitta that they earned little from the crop despite higher production costs, appealing to the Government to waive the 30 percent levy on the crop