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New cashew buying system brews tension
2007-10-28 10:21:04
By Peter Mwangu
Dr. Christine Ishengoma is Coast Regional Commissioner whose headquarters are at Kibaha, about 40 kilometres West of Dar es Salaam on the Morogoro Highway.
She is worried that if precautions are not taken, the region over which she presides may incur the wrath of cashewnut growers.
``Make sure that all growers are well informed in advance before implementing the Warehouse Receipt System.
I am not prepared to see the chaos that hit Tandahimba happening in my region,`` warned Dr. Ishengoma. RC Ishengoma was cautioning the Cashewnut Marketing Board following the ugly events in Mtwara Region where the new system was greeted with considerable opposition.
Some of them attempted to torch the house of their parliamentary representative for siding with the Cashewnut Board.
The Government boss in Coast Region seized the opportunity offered by a recent meeting of cashewnut stakeholders held at Kibaha.
The appeal from the regional commissioner underlines the importance of education and sensitization of the system which is promising to farmers considering the financially devastated cooperatives and farmer groups.
Tanga Regional Commissioner Mohammed Abdulaziz, with a background of hailing from Lindi where cashews are grown and working in Tanga where the crop is also grown was perhaps more open on the poor performance of the unions.
``The main cooperative union in Lindi Region has only two officials, the manager and the accountant.
Worse still the budget for buying cashew nuts this season is about 30bn/- against the allocated 1.5m/- from the board.
How are they going to buy the cashew nuts?`` Abdulaziz asked the stakeholders. Ideal system but unknown The disputed system is in its infancy and is controversial.
The Parliamentary Committee for Trade and Investments feels that the cooperative unions will fail to remit the 40 per cent balance after the initial 60 per cent payment to growers.
This comes in the wake of Government allocation of 18.5bn/- to cooperatives societies in Mtwara Region to facilitate purchase of cashews from growers under the new system which restricts them from selling their harvest to private buyers.
The farmer is to be paid 60 per cent of the value of the crop this season pegged at 610/- per kilogramme for Grade A and 488/- for Grade B on the spot while the remaining 40 per cent will be paid later depending on market value.
The growers want to know how long it would take to receive the balance, and that is central to the whole conflict, although the Government insists the introduction is intended to benefit them, according to Board Chairman Kitwana Kondo, who said most of the private buyers were cheating by tampering with weighing scales.
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