Tanzania government pays cashew growers Sh10 billion
Dar es Salaam. The government has released Sh10 billion out of the Sh31 billion it owes cashew nut farmers and service providers for raw cashew nuts (RCN) supplied in the 2018/19 trading season.
In March this year, Agriculture minister Japhet Hasunga said outstanding payments for farmers and services providers amounted to Sh20.421 billion and Sh11.278 billion respectively - noting that Sh10 billion of the total has just been released.
“Farmers in Coast, Ruvuma, Lindi and Mtwara are now being paid after verification. The Treasury will release the remaining Sh21 billion according to availability of funds,” he said.
The Ruangwa, Nachingwea and Liwale Cooperative Union (Runali) chairman, Mr Hassan Mpako, confirmed the part-payment.
“The problem is that cooperative unions are not given feedback on the payments, which remain a secret between the CPB, farmers and banks.”
The Tunduru Agricultural Marketing Cooperative Union (Tamcu) general manager, Imani Kalembo, said verifications have been taking place at the District Commissioner’s office.
“They have been receiving payments after verifications that aim to avoid unscrupulous farmers who will try to receive double payment or submit fake documents,” he said.
Speaking on preparation for the 2020/2021 season, Mr Hasunga said the Cashewnut Board of Tanzania (CBT) has been instructed to ensure that the challenges which arose in the 2019/20 are addressed. CBT acting director general Francis Alfred said 30,000 tonnes of powdered sulphur and 350,000 litres pesticides are required for the 2020/21 season.
He said the board and private suppliers had 25,000 tonnes of powdered sulphur and 1.2 million litres of pesticides in stock from the last farming season.
“We are making arrangements to provide agricultural inputs to some farmers on loan. However, those with the 2019/20 season outstanding will be denied,” he said.
Mr Alfred said unlike last season when cooperative unions procured packaging materials, the responsibility has this season been given to CPB.
He said CPB will be required to purchase 3.2 million sacks to meet the four million demands, noting that already there were 800,000 sacks remained from last season.
According to him, cashews production for 2020/21 stood at 300,000 tonnes, which is 68,000 tonnes higher than 232,000 tonnes produced last season.
In the 2017/18 season, the country produced 313,000 tonnes attracting $575 million after exports, equivalent to Sh1. 3 trillion.
“This season, we will focus at promoting enough use of agricultural inputs in order to increase production. We are also addressing threats caused by Covid-19 in the economy,” he said.
He said the CBT is communicating with the Tanzania embassies in Vietnam, India and China in order to assist in attracting cashew buyers from respective countries.
Also, we are promoting use of the Tanzania Mercantile Exchange (TMX) system in order to enable buyers from various parts of the world to purchase our cashews online, according to him.
“Cashews local processors will be empowered economically to procure 50,000 to 70,000 tonnes in order to meet their annual processing capacities. Also, we are encouraging the CPB to purchase, process RCN and sell the kennels abroad,” he said.
Speaking on the pre-season, Mr Mpako said the union required 600,000 sacks, 3,000 tonnes of powdered sulphur and 280,000 liters of pesticides this season.
For his part, Mr Kalembo said they demanded 800 tonnes of powdered sulphur, 300,000 liters of pesticides, saying 100,000 sacks remained in stock from last season.
