Premier orders full payment to cashew farmers by February 5

Mtwara. Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa has ordered the Ministry of Agriculture to ensure that they conclude the ongoing cashew nuts verification exercise -- and pay bona fide farmers their dues by February 5, 2019.

Mr Majaliwa gave the directive through the Cereals and Other Produce Board of Tanzania yesterday when he spoke to cashew nut stakeholders in Mtwara Region.

On November 12, 2018, President John Magufuli had said

that his government would purchase all cashew nut stocks from farmers at a flat price of Sh3,300 per kilogramme, doing so through the Tanzania Agricultural Development Bank (TADB).

The decision was reached after the government issued a four-day ultimatum to traders to buy cashew nuts. This was after cashew farmers had rejected prices offered by dealers, which were very much lower than the previous harvest season’s prices.

In following up on the government’s goal of ensuring that all cashew nuts are bought and paid for, Mr Majaliwa arrived in Mtwara yesterday to check on the farmers’ verification processes by meeting with regional and district commissioners, as well as cooperative union leaders in cashew growing regions. In the event, the premier received a report on cashew farmers’ payments, and the movement of the crop from farmers to warehouses.

“The President recently insisted that all cashew nuts must be bought from farmers, and all the collected crop must be moved from primary cooperative unions for storage in government warehouses,” he said.

“I had to personally come to Mtwara Region to meet all stakeholders and see for myself what progress has so far been made,” he said.

Commenting on the matter, the deputy minister for Agriculture, Mr Omar Mgumba, said a total of Sh792 billion had been allocated for purchases, out of which Sh416 billion had already been paid to cashew farmers by Friday last week.

This means that the government has managed to pay a total of Sh110 billion to cashew nut farmers.

Indeed, when Mr Majaliwa held a video conference on Wednesday, January 16, 2019, with the Lindi and Mtwara regional commissioners, as well as the TADB managing director, Mr Japheth Justine, they informed him that a total of Sh306 billion had been paid out to cashew farmers by that date.