TABORA, Aug. 7 -- Thirty-two leaders of the Agricultural Marketing Cooperative Societies ( AMCOS) trusted by cotton farmers have been arrested for tampering with electronic scales. Their scheme deliberately undermeasured farmers cotton, enabling them to pocket extra while the farmers unknowingly lost out.

According to the Tabora Regional Commissioner, Paul Chacha, the scandal unfolded during the peak selling season and has led to an astonishing loss of over 900,000 kilograms of cotton, valued at over 500 million/-, a theft that has deeply wounded the community.

“These AMCOS leaders were meant to be the backbone of farmers support systems, the very people tasked with safeguarding growers earnings. Instead, they misused their positi...