EDITORIAL: Govt must now pay all cashew nut farmers

One of the reports on the front-page of The Citizen on Tuesday was titled ‘Cashew nuts still hot topic in Parliament.’

This is on account of the fact that several controversial issues remain outstanding regarding the cashews subsector – especially in so far as it relates to last year’s harvest season.

That was when President John Magufuli intervened to save cashew farmers from being illegally exploited by unscrupulous cashew nut buyers, middlemen and a host of other two-legged bloodsuckers.

So, the President set the price at a minimum Sh3,000 a kilo in late October 2018, up from the Sh1,550 recommended by the Cashew Board of Tanzania.

But, while traders had paid up to Sh4,000 a kilo for the 2017 crop, they were not willing or ready to pay that much a year later, offering only Sh1,700 a kilo of the nuts from the 2018 season.

In the event President Magufuli stepped in the breach again, directing on November 12, 2018 that the government would purchase all cashew nuts from farmers at Sh3,300 per kilo, doing so through the Tanzania Agricultural Development Bank.

In due course of time and events, the government purchased cashew nuts worth a total of Sh722.7 billion from farmers, to whom Sh623.6 billion has already been paid – with Sh99.1 billion remaining unpaid.

This is a lot of money for cashew farmers mainly in only two administrative regions who badly need the money to pay for farm inputs so as to prepare adequately for the next farming season that is already upon us.

If such lapses are repeated over and over again, this could seriously injure the government’s reputation and integrity, going forward. The government must, therefore, pay the farmers soonest as pledged in Parliament on Monday by Agriculture minister Japheth Hasunga.

The government should also hasten reforms in the cashewnut sub-sector to ensure that the market functions as it should in a free market economy.