The Chinese government on Tuesday donated 141 million Tanzanian shillings (US$123,615) worth of agricultural machinery to Tanzanian government.

The agricultural machinery included three heavy-duty tractors with their implements, seven power tillers with their implements, two milling machines and two water pumping systems.

Wilfred Ngirwa, permanent secretary of the Tanzania Agriculture Ministry, told Chinese Ambassador to Tanzania Yu Qingtai that the agricultural machinery had come at the right time when the Tanzanian people are highly in need of modern technology for agricultural production and processing.

Ngirwa said that the Tanzanian government is committed to modernizing agriculture through mechanization.

More tractors have been imported to this east African country in recent years thanks to tax exemption treatment on agricultural machinery brought in from elsewhere in the world.

Now only one in 10 farmers in Tanzania resort to agricultural machinery for tilling, planting and harvesting their lands.

(Xinhua News Agency November 16, 2005)