Abstract:
Disseminated agricultural production technologies in cashew-nut crop are essential to
help farmers ensure cashew-nuts productivity. To ascertain this, a study to establish the
extent to which disseminated cashew-nut technologies improved cashew productivity in
Mkinga. Specific objectives of the study were:- To examine the input providers and type
of extension services that was provided to cashew-nut growers, to identify and analyses
challenges faced by farmers in integrating the disseminated cashew-nut production
technologies and practices into cashew nut production and to establish the current levels
of productivity as result of the adopted cashew-nut production technologies and
practices.
District was conducted. Eighty cashew-nut producing farmers at Mahandakini and
Mavovo villages were interviewed. Descriptive statistics and Mann Whitney test were
used to analyze data especially comparing cashew productivity and
technologies/practiced used. Results indicated that few farmers (below 50%) accessed
improved cashew-nut technologies and extension services from production stages to
marketing. Most extension workers were public employees. The main reason for poor
accessibility and utilization of production technologies was lack of extension services.
The big challenge to farmers among others was lack of training. The mean average of
cashew-nut productivity in Mkinga District was found to be 0.38 Tons/hectare which
according to CBT report (2013) is very small compared to national cashew-nut
productivity which was at 0.8Tons/hectare. It was thus recommended to strengthened
cashew nut improvement programme through trainings. The study concluded that there
were few extension officers to meet the village needs and recommended employing more extension agents to teach farmers.
