Cashewnut farmers abandon country's leading cash crop

By Felix Andrew

  Opt for better paying sesame and cassava cultivation

Cashewnut Board of Tanzania (CBT)

Cashewnut production in the country’s south eastern regions is dwindling and latest reports say that the crop might lose its importance as the area’s money spinner in the coming ten years due to a number of factors including delayed payments and the rising production costs.

Investigation by this paper done last week has shown that the cost of production in an acre of cashewnut stands at 30,000/-. Comparatively, that is higher than that of sesame which costs only 16,000/-.

 

Delays in payments and high production costs put aside, the discovery of a new cassava species is another factor which make farmers to shift away from cashewnut production.

 

Cashewnut is currently Tanzania’s leading cash crop. In its 2010 strategic plan, the Cashewnut Board of Tanzania (CBT) had targeted to achieve production of 180,000 tonnes but failed to do so. Statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security and Cooperative show that cashewnut production in Tanzania now stands at 127,939 tons per annum, the country hovering between number two and three in the production of the crop in the world after India.

 

Farmers who spoke to this paper at Mbuo village in Mtwara Rural District and Mtua village in Lindi Rural District said they are no longer interested in the production of cashewnut as it is too expensive a venture and very involving.

 

“Cashewnut pays less compared to sesame, that is why I have decided to shift to the latter," said Asha Namkanda, a farmer Mbuo Village in Mtwara Rural District.

 

She said growing cashew nut needs a lot of money and time, whereas farmers have been experiencing disturbances from government officials especially during the sale of the crop.

 

“As you know, we sell the crop through the warehouse receipt system which is not good to many of us because it takes months for us to get paid,” she said.

 

According to her, as a result, many farmers in the villages and nearby town areas have now turned to sesame and cassava production, which relatively have little involvement.

 

The issue of time put aside, she said, the other thing is the price. A kg of sesame for example now sells at between 2300/- and 2500/- , while that of cashewnut does not exceed 1500/-.

 

As for the new species of Kiroba cassava, one kg fetches between 500/- and 1000/- . Most farmers are more interested in this crop because they sell it on cash and not on credit, she said.

 

Sesame on the other hand is sold on cash. The two crops help the farmers to meet their daily demands instantly, instead of cashewnut which the farmers can stay up to one year without getting payment, she said.

 

Luca Mpili, a cassava farmer based in Chilimba village, Masasi District, Mtwara Region, said agricultural production has doubled due to the shift to the farming of these new crops over a couple of years.

 

“We get training on modern farming and our yields have increased compared to the past,” he said.

 

Citing, he said, he used to get five bags of maize per half acre before the training. But after applying modern farming he harvests between 15 and 20 bags of the grain per season.

 

Mpili said apart from farming more farmers have embarked on poultry and cattle keeping which have greatly changed their lives.

 

Sophia Malivata, who is also a farmer, thanked CARE International Tanzania for supporting them with agricultural inputs and modern farming techniques.

 

She said before their intervention, most of the farmers used to plant cashewnut seeds randomly or mixing them with other crops resulting in low yields.

Explaining, further she said sesame harvest at her farm has been increasing from 65 kgs in 2011 to 400 kg per acre this year.

 

According to the Cashewnut Board of Tanzania (CBT), there are many challenges facing the farmers and industry in general including inadequate application of inputs and lack of enough extension services.

 

Others are changing of weather patterns, HIV/Aids, over-aged trees and general lack of willingness of farmers to plant new trees using improved planting materials.

 

The presence of a single market for raw cashewnuts leads to unpredictable market show up and monopolistic prices and increasing demand from India for raw cashewnuts underdevelops the local processing capacity. 

 

The initiative by the government through Ministry of Industry and Trade to introduce the warehouse receipt system in the cashewnut growing areas has assisted the farmers to fetch good price on raw cashewnuts.

 

Under this system all cashewnuts are sold to primary co-operative societies hence eliminating the buyers and their middlemen to go to the villages as has been the case before.

 

The cashew nuts purchased are tested for quality and graded before the farmers are paid advance payment of 60 percent of the indicative price. 

 

The system currently operates in Mtwara Region whereby the National Microfinance Bank (NMB) extended billions of shillings as loans to Primary co-operative societies under government guarantee for the purpose of purchasing cashewnut and pays 60 percent advance payment to farmers.

 

Malivata said poor infrastructure is another problem that the farmers have also lamented on saying the state of the rural roads make them fail to trabsport the crop to the markets.

 

"Infrastructure is the most challenging issue in our area, we urge the government to improve all rural roads so that we can easily transport our crops to the market," she said.

 

For her part, the CARE Tanzania programme coordinator in Lindi and Mtwara Regions Maureen Kwilasa said  they have implemented a five-year project dubbed Women’s’ Empowerment: Improving Resilience, Income and Food Security (WE-RISE) that is aimed at increasing food security for over 24,000 direct beneficiaries.

She said Lindi and Mtwara regions face food insecurity, variable climate changes and poor infrastructure.

 

The project which ends next year is striving to address and help guarantee women’s access to use of and control of productive assets, resources and services.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN