Website World Partners Foundation - CASHEW PROCESSING PROJECT

CASHEW PROCESSING PROJECT

Location: Chakama, Mtwara region, Tanzania Budget: $ 355,000 Background: In the Mtwara region, Tanzania, there is hardly any access to energy (< 5% of households have access to electricity) and very few employment opportunities (in rural areas only 8.7% is unemployed, but there is a lot of ‘underemployment'). The cultivation of cashew nuts is an important sector in the Mtwara region. Currently, most of the cashew nut processing takes place in India. Many small scale cashew nut farmers are missing out on this ‘added value'. The project will fully provide sustainable energy (solar and biomass) to a factory that processes cashew nuts. Both the workers in the factory and the families will receive sustainable energy. Besides this, a training and education centre will be equipped with facilities that run on sustainable energy.
	CASHEW PROCESSING
		For this project $ 355,000 sponsor- money is needed.
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	PARTNERS
	Word Partners Tanzania Masasi High Quality Association
GOALS
To use sustainable energy to process cashew nuts in a factory in Chakama To improve the income position of cashew-nut farmers in and around Chakama To provide jobs to women in Chakama and the surrounding villages To raise awareness and provide training, education, energy and project management for the residents in and near Chakama
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
In the Mtwara region, around the city of Masasi a large cooperation (more than 900 cashew farmers) was established consisting of six village based member associations. In the end of 2009 the cooperation started with the small scale processing of raw cashew nuts from their members. This project aims to build an additional new and larger processing facility in one of the member villages: Chakama. Chakama is not connected to the power grid and the facility will run on sustainable energy generated by a combination of biomass (cashew shells) and a solar energy system. Besides the factory, a part of the generated energy will be used for an computer, training and education centre and by the people of Chakama e.g. for charging cell phones. When fully operational the factory will provide more than 80 workplaces for women from Chakama and the surrounding villages. Initially the factory will process around 250 tonnes of raw cashew annually.

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