The Impact Of Government Intervention In The Production Of Cashew Nuts In Mtwara Tanzania

ABSTRACT

The study is about the impact of government intervention on the production of cashew nuts in Mtwara Region. It is built-up by three key themes, namely the extent which the government intervention has led to the provision of incentives to the cashew nut farmers in Mtwara, the extent to which the government intervention has corrected the cashew nut market and the extent to which the government intervention has encouraged internal processing of cashew nuts in Mtwara Region. The study employed both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection through survey questionnaire, in-depth interviews, and Focus Group Discussions. The purposive sampling method was used to obtain key informants for interviews while simple random sampling was used to sample respondents to fill the survey questionnaire and focus group discussion participants. Thus, a sample of 119 respondents of which 90 were used for survey, 9 for interviews and 20 informants participated through Focus Group Discussion. The quantitative data were analyzed through the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), version 20 while qualitative data were analyzed through thematic approach and content analysis followed by pattern matching and strong explanations. The analysis revealed that the government intervention has, to a smaller extent, contributed to provisions of incentives to the cashew nut farmers. The government intervention has corrected the cashew nut market to a smaller extent whereby the inequalities and inefficiency were eliminated in that farmers received fair and reasonable prices from the traders. Further analysis revealed that the government intervention to a smaller extent have led to the increase internal cashew nut processing industries. The study concluded that the government intervention has succeeded, to a smaller extent, to facilitate the cashew nut production. Thus, the government needs to revise its intervention strategies in the cashew sector to enhance further production of cashew nut. The government ought to direct its support to farmers and small processing industries by providing all the necessary requirements to facilitate the production of cashew nuts.