Authorities develop strategies to boost cashewnut production

According to Cashewnut Board of Tanzania (CBT), Masasi and Mtwara Cooperative Union (Mamcu) collected 59,316.33 tonnes during the 2022/23 season making it the major producing region.

Ruangwa, Nachingwea and Liwale Cooperative Union (Runali) collected 41,752.36 tonnes, while the Tandahimba and Newala Cooperative Union (Tanecu) garnered 31,605.03 tonnes. Lindi Mwambao collected 14,448.17 tonnes as Tunduru Agricultural Marketing Cooperative Union (Tamcu) and Coast Region Cooperative Union gathered 14,305.14 tonnes and 10,743. 86 tonnes respectively.

However, Ulanga and Kilombero Cooperative Union (Ukicu) managed to auction only 154 tonnes of RCN.

Following the trend, cashew experts and stakeholders convened an assessment meeting on February 21 in Mtwara and came up with several factors behind the decline in production.

They include; changes of weather and the presence of a minimum of 16 sunshine hours between August and September last year which was attributed as an important factor that led to declined cashews production.

“A prolonged period of cold weather, especially during the production period that led to poor flowering causing drying and dispersal of flowers from some trees,” reads part of a statement posted at the CBT website.

“Oversaturated and cloudy atmosphere created a favourable environment for disease outbreaks, especially the Cashew Leaf and Nut Blight Disease (CLNBD). The situation hindered flower pollination, with some of them drying and falling from the trees,” adds another part of the statement.

Furthermore, they pointed out that insufficient use of inputs due to farmers’ lack of enough capital and late arrival of subsidized inputs issued by the government adversely affected application in some areas, hence affecting yields.

“The shortage of input blowing equipment was another challenge. Farmers had to remain in queues waiting for the service. This allowed some of them to make timely fertilizer applications,” according to the statement.

“The use of some input blowing equipment below Five Horse Power (HP) was another challenge because such equipment are incapable of taking the inputs to the far upper parts of cashew tree,” reads another part.

Following what has been witnessed the Mtwara regional administration has set strategies to increase the production including a recently launched campaign dubbed “Clear Bushes and Increase Production”.

The campaign is implemented under the leadership of Regional Commissioner (RC), Colonel Ahmed Abbas involving provision of education to farmers in all districts.

The campaign is done by experts from the Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (Tari) at the Naliendele Centre and the CBT.

The Cashew Crop Research Programme coordinator from the Tari- Naliendele Centre, Dr Wilson Nene, says early preparation of cashew farms is crucial for good harvests.

“Preparation starts shortly after harvests. It means this is the appropriate time. Preparation could involve improving production of cashew trees through budding,” he said.

“This is among the huge responsibilities we have at the centre. Reviving cashew farms doesn’t mean uprooting and replacing old trees with the new ones, rather through making professional improvement of existing ones,” he added.

Furthermore, he said improvement involves clearing the farms through pruning excess tree branches in order to allow thorough penetration of sunlight much needed by cashew trees.

The CBT acting director general, Mr Juma Yusuph said this season, the government has planned to increase provision of subsidized agriculture inputs from 15,000 tonnes of powdered sulphur to 49,000 tonnes.

Furthermore, he said the amount of liquid sulphur is expected to be increased from 2.6 million litres to 3.13 million litres in order to meet the actual demand of farmers.

“We have started updating cashew farmers’ databases in order to enable us to get the actual amount of inputs required by farmers this season. Farmers should actively participate in the exercise,” he said.

According to him the updating will involve making measurements of their farm, the number of cashew trees and that every farmer should ensure that they take fingerprints,” he said.

Mtwara RC Col. Abbas said despite the ongoing measures undertaken to increase cashew production and processing, firms have also been doing a commendable job. He said value addition would provide solutions to existing challenges in the sector.

“Tandahimba is among cashews major producing districts providing impactful contribution in the region. In the past you produced 74,000 tonnes that later declined to 24,000 tonnes, something that adversely affected the regions’ overall production,” he told Tandahimba stakeholders at a recent meeting.

“Therefore, there are all the reasons for stakeholders’ involvement in addressing existing challenges in order to increase production,” he added. He said the government has directed that cashews yields should be increased to 400,000 tonnes by 2025, noting that that calls for collective efforts of everyone including leaders and crop experts.

This is the reason that has forced me to join the ongoing mobilization campaigns to clean the farms, which in my views should be sustainable, according to him.

“Looking at regional statistics, we once reached the production of 154,000 tonnes, but now we have dropped to about 94,000 tonnes recorded last season,” he said.

“We are responsible for ensuring that we collaborate with experts and stakeholders to ensure that we increase cashews production. Extension officers will be empowered and provided with essential tools that will enable them to efficiently help farmers to reach production goals,” he added.

Nanhyanga Ward Councilor Abbas Namaleha says in order to increase cashew production, the government should improve access to inputs.

“We have experts and the Tari Centre, but the limited access to inputs has been hindering efforts to increase cashews production in the region,” he said.

“However, we believe that this problem will be fixed next season, because the situation was tense last season in terms of both production and better prices. We believe that the government has good plans to address the challenge of inadequate supply of agricultural inputs to farmers recorded last season,” said Mr Namaleha.

A senior officer at the Department of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries in Tandahimba District, Mr Issa Naumanga, says they have had long-term strategies to increase cashew production.

“We have said there is need to plant more than five million new cashew trees to produce over 50,000 tonnes of cashews per season,” he said.

Source: The Citizen