<p></p><p>Dar es Salaam — Tanzania's cashew nut output is projected to drop by about 20 per cent this year due to bad weather and poor farming methods.The director general of Cashew nut Board of Tanzania (CBT), Mr Mfaume Juma, told BusinessWeek that as the crop-buying season is drawing to a close, production is expected to be less than the previous season's.According to him, until the end of December 2015, some 130,000 tonnes were collected and the expectation is to achieve the output of about 150,000 tonnes at the end of crop-buying season, which ends next month.This also implies that there is an expected gap of 39,000 tonnes of cashew output in 2015/16 crop-buying season."As the crop-purchasing season is expected to end in February 2016, the output this season is expected to decline due to bad weather in the 2015 farming season," says Mr Mfaume. <br></p> <p>"Although the prices for cashews had increased from Sh1,700 in the last farming season to Sh2,200 a kilo this season, still collected output is low: at 130,000 tonnes," he says.According to him, improved warehouse receipt system and higher world market prices had activated the cashew nut auctioning.But agribusiness analysts are still sceptical about the performance of warehouse system.Agribusiness consultant Ebron Mwakalinga, who has done studies on cashew farming, says apart from the erratic rainfall arising from climate change, cashew farmers face the chronic problem of declining output due to three factors: poor farming methods, crop shifting cultivation and the use of bush fires for weeding. <br></p> <p>The other problem affecting cashew nut farmers in Coast, Lindi and Mtwara regions is failure to apply farm inputs such as insecticides and tools for weeding and pruning.The next one is marketing problem which lacks transparency during the process of auctioning, according to Mr Mwakalinga."Unlike in coffee marketing system whereby farmers know the trends in the world market prices, most of cashew nut farmers do not know the trend in the world market prices of their crops," says Mr Mwakalinga."Several studies have indicated that most of cashew nut farmers in Mtwara and Lindi regions have been leaving their cashew nut farms in the bushes without clearance. They have been changing the plots outside their dwelling without clearing the bushes."According to 2014 report of Agricultural Non-State Actors Forum, Tanzania is Africa's largest cashew nut grower after Nigeria and Ivory Coast, and the world's eighth biggest producer. <br></p> <p>The world's largest producer of cashew nuts is Vietnam with average annual output of 1.2 million tonnes, followed by Nigeria with output of 835,000 tonnes, India which is the third with output of 674,600 tonnes, followed by Ivory Coast with output of 393,000 tonnes and Brazil with output 230,785 tonnes, according to 2013 data compiled by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation.In its November economic review the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) reported that the value of cashew nut exports increased from $137.8 million (Sh276 billion) at the end of October 2014 to $555.7 million (Sh1.1 trillion) at the end of October 2015.This means that such an increase in value accounts for $417.9 million (Sh836 billion) or in increased value of 75 per cent.The improved performance of export of cashew nuts was a result of an increase in both volume and price, according to BoT.<br></p><p></p>