HC Deb 01 August 1951 vol 491 c1429
16. Mr. J. Johnson

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies if he will make a statement upon the scheme of the Tanganyika Government to establish a grain storage department, including silos with conditioning plants, at selected centres.

Mr. J. Griffiths

As the reply is necessarily lengthy, I will, with permission, circulate it in the OFFICIAL REPORT.

Following is the reply: In 1949 a Department of Grain Storage was set up in the territory and a start was made upon a building programme to provide storage on a territorial scale. The programme is now nearing completion and will provide storage for some 52,000 tons of grain sited at 13 strategic centres throughout the country. In addition, the storage programme provides for conditioning plants at Moshi, Korogwe and Kilosa; the Kilosa Plant is already working and the other two are now undergoing trials. The plants are for experimental purposes in the first instance. The programme described above is designed to meet the major part of the territory's short term requirements. In 1952, it is proposed to follow this up with smaller supplementary programmes to provide further storage in the light of experience to be gained. In supplement of this major territorial project, native authorities throughout the territory are being encouraged and assisted by Government to provide local storage facilities. These are necessarily on a proportionately smaller scale than those included in the territorial programme. Thus, in the Handeni District, 10 Chiefdom grain stores, each of a capacity of 150 tons are to he constructed; in the Lake Province a total capacity of 7,000 tons storage is to be provided on the basis of small cylindrical stores in groups of 100 to 150 tons in capacity and also experimental underground storage pits of 100 to 250 tons capacity. The Central Province has had its own system of native authority grain storage for some years now with capacity of approximately 8,000 tons. On a smaller scale, the Southern Highlands and the Northern Province have had similar systems of native authority storage for several years.