The cashew nuts sub-sector is steadily proving to be an important game changer for both cashew farmers and the economy of Tanzania in general. Cashew nuts are the most exported cash crop in Tanzania today. For example, exports of the crop in 2019 generated $353.1 million in foreign/hard currency, prompting the government to seek to triple cashew nuts production over the next four-to-five years. As it is, production of the crop had grown by about 50 percent in four years, increasing from 155,200 tonnes in 2015 to 232,700 tonnes in 2019 – and was estimated to reach 300,000 tonnes or thereabouts by 2020. Currently, most of the cashew nuts production in Tanzania is concentrated in the Coast, Lindi, Ruvuma and Mtwara regions, which account for over 80 percent of total annual production – mostly by smallholder farmers operating at the subsistence level. However, things are changing for the better – what with improved hybrid seed varieties that eventually result in bigger, premium-quality cashew nuts, and which are already working wonders for some farmers. According to the Naliendele Centre of the Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute, the Institute has already developed 54 improved cashew seed varieties on seed farms across the land, the results of which “revolutionise productivity of the crop.” ADVERTISEMENT As we reported in these pages on Thursday (April 1, 2021), the new seed varieties have the ability to boost nuts productivity by up to 20 kilogrammes per cashew tree per year – and with about 100 or less nuts weighing a kilo, instead of the customary 200 nuts or so. This, together with government plans to expand and extend cashews farming to other regions of the United Republic – ecologies permitting – should be a game changer for both cashew farmers and the national economy. It is, therefore, no wonder that cashew nut farmers and processors are already upbeat over the new seed varieties.