| TRAVEL REPORT TANZANIA |
|
Early March Hans Hamoen and his wife Leny visited the cashew and cassava project in Mtwara, Tanzania. Here you can read the travel report and learn more about the progress of the project. On 28 February Leny and I were picked up at the airport of Dar Es Salaam (Port of Freedom) by Steven Osinde, his wife Esnati Chaggu and Geoffrey Mkamilo. Because Geoffrey had to go to another meeting we talked a lot about the cashew nuts project that night. About the progress and the opportunities but also about the setbacks. The next day we flew to Mtwara, where the cashew nut farm is situated. George Chikala, the World Partners company manager, picked us up at the airport. The airport has a metal shed, where it was extremely hot because it was more than 30 degrees outside and the sun was right on top. But we were lucky because George had rented an air-conditioned car for the day. He drove us to the hotel, where we had a meeting about the government intervention, the trade with India, the cashew nut institute in Naliendele, where Geoffrey Mkamilo works and of course also about the farm itself. In the afternoon we made a long walk on the grounds of the farm.World Partners owns a total of 40 ha of land and 2535 cashew nut trees here. Some of which are 8 and others 6, 4 and 2 years old. The 8-year-old trees shave started to grow fruits now. We noticed that all the weeds, the bushes and other trees needed to be removed completely from the farm. We learned a lot about the problems with weeds blocking the light from the cashew nut trees. Therefore the weeds need to be removed because next year we need to be able to produce and the production can be increased by 50% without the weeds. An investment will be needed to achieve this but the investment will be recovered easily after a couple of years. In 2008 the total production was approximately 4,000 kilo of raw nuts. Next year this would be approximately 7,000 kilo without the removal of the weeds. With the removal of the weeds this would be 10,000 kilo, which is an increase of 3,000 kilo. The trees will experience fewer diseases and they will grow better.   The objective of the project is double: Firstly, the project must be profitable and it is estimated that this will take three more years. Secondly there must be enough employment in the region that has a very low number of jobs and a number of community development projects need to be started up. All in all the entire project is going very well. George Chikala runs around the farm with a smile on his face and knows almost all the trees. He has all the technical knowledge he needs and if he has any questions he can contact the cashew nut institute in Naliendele. The Tanzanian government fears that the farmers do not get enough income and has therefore decided to introduce a compulsory purchase regulation, which assures the farmers of a fixed price. This price is very low and the government sells the raw nuts to processing companies or directly to India, where the profits are made. We have therefore decided to set up a co-operative society for the farmers, which will also process the nuts. The advantage is that the farmers keep control of everything, that the profits remain within the co-operative society and that the supply chain from the farmer in Tanzania to the wholesaler in large western countries is guaranteed. It is even possible to set up a fair-trade organization here. A social venture capital fund in the USA offers financing for this. Esnati, Geoffrey and George would like to thank all the people of World Partners for their help.
|
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|