Banker: How to attain goal of 700,000 tonnes of annual cashewnut harvests

Dar es Salaam. Agricultural inputs application in cashew nut farms requires professionalism for the country to record high yields and meet the country’s 700,000 tonnes target, says an experienced banker.

Also, he recommended digitalisation of warehouses, the provision of unique identification numbers to cashew farmers and adequate reformation of the Agricultural Marketing Cooperative Society (Amcos).

Mr Altemius Millinga, who is the Yetu Microfinance Bank managing director, made the observation in an interview with The Citizen to share the banks’ three-year experience of working in the cashews industry in the Mtwara and Lindi regions.

Mr Millinga said that from 2018/19 to 2020/21, the bank has been providing farm input loans to farmers in seven districts in the two regions.

He named the districts as Masasi, Nanyumbu and Tandahimba, as well as Kilwa, Lindi, Liwale and Ruangwa in Mtwara and Lindi regions respectively.

“In the last three years, agricultural inputs worth Sh3.683 billion were credited to 4,977 borrowers from 198 Amcos. Farm inputs worth an average of Sh740,000 has been provided,” he said.

“However, despite provision of the inputs, cashews productivity remained relatively low certainly because of the poor application of skills and knowledge.”

Recently, The Citizen reported that the government had set a 700,000 tonnes target of cashew nuts production by 2025/26 that would inject Sh3 trillion into the economy.

The amount would be realised through an increase in the quantity of processed merchandise from the present average production of 10-to-20 percent to the new estimates of 60 percent.

For that to happen, Mr Millinga suggested authorities professionalise the input application sub-sector by placing it in the hands of graduates in the private sector.

The graduates should be trained and get dispatched to different growing regions after being empowered with finance and modern equipment.

He said the move would free farmers from the pressure of executing the job requiring high skills and expertise in order to increase yields.

“Before the bank started providing farmers with farm input loans, farmers used to get an average of seven to ten kilo of cashews annually.

“However, our observation shows that the amount remained unchanged even after provision of agricultural inputs,” he said.

Mr Millinga said the role of the public sector would be making a declaration that inputs application would be done by accredited personnel by the Tanzania Plant Health and Pesticide Authority (TPHPA), as well as controlling the quality of the job like what is being done in the sanitation.

He said financial institutions will have a role of enabling the youth to get finance and modern equipment for the job execution.

“In order to purchase modern blowing/spraying equipment, farmers would be required to dig deeper that would be difficult for most of them to afford. But, a group of the youth could procure through support of financial institutions,” he said, adding.

“Increased production will enable farmers to easily cover application expenses and automatically build the capacity for the youth to recover equipment costs to respective financial institutions.”

He said that, through the setup, the 700,000 tonnes target reaching 2025/26 would be realised using the available cashew trees without implementing the annual 1.5 million cashew trees planting as stipulated in the plans of the Cashewnut Board of Tanzania (CBT).

According to him, the method would be useful also for monitoring use of agriculture inputs; measuring cashews productivity and efficiency and providing room to address challenges of farm management.

Regarding “dirty games” in the field, Mr Millinga said unscrupulous Amcos officials steal farmers’ cashews during the measurement by significantly reducing the weight of the produce.

“That is why Amcos officers will be found at their warehouses sometimes at midnight. They balance the theft made to the actual amount,” he said.

Furthermore, he suggested control measures and digitalisation of warehouses in order to ensure that received products are scanned to prevent tampering of stored goods.

He said farmers should be provided with unique identification numbers for tracking the origin of their products and prevent deceiving supporters of production processes.

“Through the unique identification cashew farmers should be listed together with their production capacity. The move will prevent arbitrary cashew trading, popularly known as kangomba,” he said.

According to him, experience shows that farmers sold their crops through kangomba in order to get money to address some family challenges including food shortage, health, education, death, fines etc.

He said Yetu Microfinance Bank Plc formulated a Jikimu package that assured farmers in demand to be provided with Sh50,000 every month during the off-season needed to address such challenges.

“A total of 1,400 farmers have benefited since 2019. The government can use a similar method in addressing kangomba-like challenges in all crops operating through different names,” he said.