CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
by K. Cliff Ntonga, Malawi, September 1999
THEME = RURAL LIFE
An overview of problems besetting Malawi's tangerine growers
Chisambai Ngozo's tangerine plantation is situated in Mwanza District, southern Malawi, and is his main source of living - and of worry. "Sometimes I wish I had not planted this fruit but then where would I get the little money I get now", observes Ngozo. When Ngozo's fruit crop comes into season from April to September each year, a number of people make their way to his four- hectare homestead to buy a few tangerines to eat as a snack.
Once in a while, a pick-up pulls up to make a bulk purchase of tangerines (citrus reticulata) for re-sale in Blantyre, Lilongwe, Zomba, Mzuzu and other towns and districts where the fruit is not cultivated. Indeed, customers are happy to pay the price demanded because sweet tangerines cannot be found elsewhere in the country.
But agricultural experts say the farmers of Mwanza engaged in tangerine growing, do not receive adequate returns for their work. Albert Chakuda is a horticulturalist at Mwanza Rural Development Project (RDP). He says: "These farmers are being exploited by "middle men" who go into the villages to buy the fruit at a very cheap price and then sell the tangerines at high prices in the cities and towns". Chakuda says the farmers, whose economic situation is such that they cannot make the journey themselves to market their produce in the urban centres, are left to choose between selling their fruit at give-away prices in their villages, or watch the fruit fall to the ground from the trees and rot.
But sometimes that choice doesn't even exist. When the tangerine season falls during the rainy season, most roads in the district become impassable. Vehicle-owners then shift to business ventures which do not involve trips to rural areas. Growers are thus left without any market for their produce.
Tangerines were introduced to Malawi by foreign missionaries but the problem of marketing the fruit has always been there. In 1983, the growers formed their own Fruit Growers Association with the aim of looking for markets, transporting the fruit, setting standard prices and eventually producing juice from the fruit for a future tangerine processing plant in the district.
The Association then sent a project proposal to USAID/SHARED PROJECT who responded positively. By June 1993, the Association had its own well-furnished offices, a computer, vehicles and the availability of a juice processing machine. It also employed an executive secretary, a finance and administration manager, a marketing officer and other supporting staff.
But disaster struck! Any profits made, found their way into individual pockets. By the end of 1996, all that remained of the secretariat were vacated offices, an idle computer, one secretary and a watchman.
The Head of Agriculture in the district, Ben Chingwalu, blames the Association's downfall on the wide gap that existed between board members and the secretariat. He says: "Board members who were all fruit growers, were unable to follow all the activities in the secretariat, and the latter capitalised on this deficiency to swindle the Association".
Chingwalu says his department plans to revamp the Association as a way of rescuing the 7,000 growers from their present problems. He says the department will offer leadership training so that all tangerine growers will be trained in fruit management skills such as pruning, grafting and pesticide application.
Pesticides, however, may not be of much use as the Mediterranean Fruit Fly (ceratitis capitata) and the Citrus Woolly White Fly (aleurothrixus maskell), the two pests recently reported in this major citrus fruit growing area, are resistant to most pesticides.
Dr. Harriet Thindwa is a researcher at the government-owned Bvumbwe Agricultural Research Station. She says pesticides have, by and large, failed to control the Woolly White Fly in many areas where it has been tried. Thindwa says the White Fly is dangerous as it extracts plant-sap and injects into the plant, toxic saliva and sooty mould that coats leaves and fruits in thick black layers. She says this impedes the photosynthesis process, resulting in leaf defoliation and reduction in fruit size and quality.
"Only a biological option can give an economic and long lasting solution to the White Fly problem. It has been effectively used in France, Spain, Sicily, USA and more recently, in Uganda", writes Thindwa in an article published in the newly launched Horticulture In Malawi magazine.
But Chingwalu reveals that the Ministry of Agriculture has already imported a predator called "cales noacki" from Uganda which will be used to control the White Fly in all affected areas.
"Currently, the predator is being multiplied and after that it will be supplied to all affected areas", says Chingwalu. However, it's not known how long it will take before the predator reaches all the one million tangerine trees in Mwanza district.
Ngozo is doubtful if all these plans will lead to action so that he can get adequate remuneration from his work. He says: "A lot has been said but nothing has been done to assist us. I will reserve my comments until I see something tangible".
END
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