ZANZIBAR has posted a record cloves harvest this year, the biggest in the past 15 years, according to the Director General of the Zanzibar State Trade Corporation (ZSTC), Dr Said Seif Mzee.
“Last year we bought 2,277 tonnes of cloves, but in the current harvest season, we have already purchased a large amount, the biggest in the past ten or 15 years,” Dr Mzee said, declining to release the official data, saying “it will be revealed after the end of cloves picking season early next year.”
He said it has been a bumper harvest and farmers are happy as their cloves are bought by ZSTC at 14,000/- per kilogramme (first grade), “the best price offered by the government despite price fall in the world market.”
He attributed the success to control of illegal (smuggling) sale of cloves, motivation of farmers because of good buying price, free distribution of clove seedlings, and clove picking insurance for people who fall and get injured during harvest.
However, the success has been tainted by fatalities after at least four people reportedly lost their lives after falling from clove trees while picking ripe cloves. The ZSTC boss said at least 128 cloves pickers, including 83 women were injured during the harvest exercise, some of them permanently disabled.
He said the victims are being compensated as per ‘Insurance regulations’, and that his office has allocated about 126m/- for the comforting payment of which the deceased families are paid 5m/-, while victims with permanent disability resulting from the fall will be paid 7m/- each.
Dr Mzee said: “The ongoing reforms, since 2010, intend to revamp cloves production, have already impacted the farmers and the people on the islands with many improving their livelihood, sidelining abject poverty.”
But the ZSTC’s positive statement on cloves is contrary to the recent survey conducted by the ‘Inspire Consultants’ with support from ‘Zanzibar Clove Producers Organisation (ZCPO)’ and ‘BEST-AC’, saying that despite big production of cloves, Pemba remains underdeveloped, with poverty remaining high.
According to the survey by Dr Deogratias Mahangila, farmers have been abandoning clove farming due to low prices and lack of freedom to sale their cloves. The ZSTC Director General branded the survey as “substandard, including lack of data to justify the arguments raised in the survey report.
We ask people to ignore some of the claims, including allegations that smuggling (illegal sale of clove to neighbouring Kenya) is on the rise.”
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment