MONGU CASHEW NUT FARMERS CRY FOR HELP
Cashew nut farmers in Mongu, Western Province, have requested for help in order to overcome various challenges affecting the cashew nut sector.
Those talked to, have lamented that the sector despite being viable, has continued to face many challenges, which has hampered production.
A group of journalists established during site visits that lack of pesticides was listed as one of the major challenges due to its high cost.
Mr Mola Mola of Mulengwa area in Mongu who is currently managing about 50 cashew nut trees, told journalists that his plea is for government and other stakeholders to come in and support the farmers, in order for them to contribute to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
He said his plans has been to increase the number of trees, but has been incapacitated due to various challenges which he hopes will get the attention of relevant stakeholders.
Widowed but eager, Mrs Albertina Nyambe’s challenges are equally similar, and therefore called for capacity building for cashew nut farmers across the country.
Meanwhile, Export Trading Group (ETG) programmes manager,Mr Nyambe Luhila, said cashew being a high value crop, has capacity to contribute about 90% to the district’s GDP and 30 to 40% nationally.
He acknowledged that farmers are interested in cashew buy challenged with effective management of the lucrative project.
“Indeginous knowledge about the crop is missing. Unlike growing cassava,were information about it is passed from people to people, information still lacks about the management of cashew” Mr Luhila observed with a call for enhanced extention services to equip farmers with the right information.
And Mongu acting District Agricuture Cordinator, Mr Roggie Simmwinde assured that extention services have been enhanced so that farmers can benefit from programmes that can promote agriculture productivity.
He urged farmers to be in constant touch with extention officers in order to benefit from various agricultural services that government is implementing.
