Co-operatives as tools for promoting cashewnuts production and marketing in Tanzania

Abstract

Co-operatives continue to be the engine for economic growth in most developing countries. Co-operatives have significantly contributed to the development of agriculture by mobilisation and distribution of financial capital, marketing, and providing solutions to other socio-economic problems. Co-operatives are believed to be essential tools in achieving the development targets, especially in the agricultural sector. The question is, to what extent is this true, and how this happens. This paper contributes to the emerging debate on the roles and critiques of co-operatives as tools for promoting the production and marketing of members’ products, using cashewnuts production in Tanzania as a case. The discussion is centred on the role of co-operatives in production especially enabling the preparation of farms and access to inputs. Also, the role they play in the process of collecting and marketing cashewnuts as well as paying farmers. Similarly, the paper highlights challenge those co-operatives have been facing in the process of cashewnuts marketing. The paper ends by providing reflections and concluding remarks which provide lessons and sharing knowledge for replication in other crops of the same context in Tanzania and elsewhere