Professional Documents
Culture Documents
NOVEMBER 1995
AS A CASH CROP
IN MWAMBE, PEMBA
ZCCFSP
P.O. BOX 2283
Zanzibar
Page
Preface ii
Research Methods 3
Alternative Opportunities 11
Labour Constraints 11
Marketing Constraints 12
References 16
PREFACE
This is one of a series of five cash crop case studies undertaken by the socio-
economics section of ZCCFSP in Zanzibar. The main aim of these studies is
to analyse the different factors which have led to local cash crop
development, with a view to forming policy recommendations and devising
practical interventions which might further facilitate and promote this kind of
development in the future. We hope that the lessons which are drawn from
these studies will be of relevance to the Ministry as a whole and not just to
projects like ZCCFSP whose primary interest is in encouraging sustainable
cash crop production and marketing.
Research Methods
9. This study is based primarily upon fieldwork undertaken in Mwambe
(and Jambangome) by the socio-economics section of ZCCFSP
Pemba between November 1994 and May 1995. Mwambe is located
in the far south-eastern corner of Pemba, on the opposite side of the
island to the southern town and port of Mkoani. Administratively
Mwambe forms a single shehia (formerly CCM branch) within Mkoani
district, and comprises a collection of six main hamlets, each with a
population of more than 100 households. These villages are Mchakwe,
Bwegeza, Chaleni, Jombwe, Kwasasani and Chanjani. Mwambe was
selected as the location of this study because of its fame as the pimary
turmeric-producing area on Pemba.
10. In December 1992 ZCCFSP conducted a PRA in Mwambe, focusing
upon Jombwe, Kwasanani and Chanjani villages. The report of this
PRA provides an outline description of the local farming system and its
wider socio-economic context, and should be consulted for further
background information. The farmers of Mwambe exploit three main
types of land: (1) the deep nchi nene soils, which contain a high
content of cracking clay and are found especially around the villages;
(2) the coral rag (makaani) to the east, this being the most important
area for agriculture, including turmeric production; and (3) the clove-
growing land to the west, which only a proportion of farmers have direct
access to. Severe land pressure has led some local farmers to
cultivate, either seasonally or permanently, much further to the west
and outside of Mwambe altogether. One such group of farmers, in the
Jambangome area, north-east of Mkoani town, were also sought out
for interview in the course of the present study.
11. A checklist of research questions was drawn up prior to conducting
informal interviews with farmers in the field. In addition to group
interviews in Mwambe, a small sample of farmers was selected for
individual interview, focusing upon those who had been named as
playing an important role in the historical development of turmeric
production. The results of this work were written up in the form of
interview notes (retained on file in the ZCCFSP Pemba office) and
subjected to initial analysis by the socio-economics section in early
1995. This led to the decision to follow-up with a further round of
interviews in Jamangome, which were not completed until after the
long rains of 1995 because of problems in gaining access to this area
by road. As indicated above, information drawn from the earlier PRA of
Mwambe has also been incorporated into the present study.
12. A brief literature review has provided additional background data on
turmeric production in both Pemba and Unguja. No attempt has been
made, however, to make a thorough search of the archives or inerview
other key informants either within or outside of MALNR. The full history
of turmeric production and marketing in Zanzibar therefore remains to
be written, as indeed it does for most other crops on the islands.
13. In writing this report we have tried to highlight the main stages in the
development of turmeric as a cash crop in Mwambe, singling out the
principal factors which have contributed towards it. The logic behind
this form of presentation has already been outlined in the introduction
above. Again, we invite anyone with additional information and/or
alternative interpretations to share them with us, and so add to the
potential value of our research.
Alternative Opportunities
42. Farmers have responded to this situation in a number of different ways.
A small but significant proportion of them have sought land and opened
up farms in the west of Pemba. While some of these farmers cultivate
seasonally in Jambangome and elsewhere, others, like Ali Nyange,
have moved out of Mwambe altogether and settled permanently on
their new farms. Although he and other farmers in Jambangome tried
at first to cultivate turmeric there, the somewhat different conditions
(resulting in a higher incidence of Leaf Blotch) and potential for growing
other crops for sale (including cassava and cocoyams), led them to
abandon the attempt.
43. Many of the farmers who have remained in Mwambe have also
changed their cash cropping strategies. The most notable
development since the 1992 PRA has been an increase in the
production of crops, especially bananas, for the Zanzibar town market.
In 1992 bananas were mainly considered to be a local food crop:
although they had once been traded in some quantities to Unguja, this
trade had come to a virtual standstill following a decline in regular boat
services between the islands. The recent improvement in these
services, however, has resulted in a marked increase in the volume of
bananas and other fruits exported to Zanzibar town through the port at
Mkoani. This has had a positive effect upon banana production
throughout Pemba, and especially in Mwambe, where oranges are also
beginning to find a wider market. In Mwambe bananas and oranges
are principally grown on the nchi nene and deeper makaani soils. The
fact that bananas can be sold throughout the year and consumed as
food makes them a particularly attractive crop to farmers. The main
impact of this new development upon turmeric has therefore been
negative, as farmers have increasingly shifted their attentions away
from it.
44. As the 1992 PRA made clear, off-farm activities also play an important
role in the economic strategies of Mwambe’s householders. Ali
Nyange’s movement in and out of different forms of enterprise and
wage labour is just one example of this from a reasonably well-off
household. Off-farm income is equally important to poorer households,
though it contributes less to their overall subsistence. Growing land
pressure and its consequences for the ability of households with little
land to live off it means that off-farm income is increasing in importance
for this group. Although clove-picking is no longer an attractive source
of income, many others are exploited by Mwambe households. The
long list of off-farm activities reported in 1992 includes fishing,
carpentry, stone-collecting, lime-making, basket-making, mat-making,
pole and firewood-collecting, petty trading, and wage employment of
different kinds.
Labour Constraints
45. Another factor which makes turmeric a less attractive crop than others
is the labour involved in processing it. As we have seen, shopkeepers
prefer to buy turmeric in powdered form. There is no suitable grinding
machine on Pemba, and turmeric therefore has to be processed
manually. This is a relatively time-consuming task, and one which
takes longer and involves even more work if a high-quality product is
desired. The process which produces the best powder also begins
with boiling, and this requires the collection of firewood by women
and/or added expense in purchasing it. Not surprisingly, the most
common method used is one based upon sun-drying and which does
not involve repeated grinding. This results in a medium-quality product
which is at least better than the powder produced by the simpler and
quicker method of pounding then drying fresh rhizomes.
46. Processing is normally the work of women and girls in the household,
though sometimes non-household members, including children, are
paid to do it. Turmeric demands a higher labour input from women
than most other local crops. At the same time women’s returns from
the crop are limited by the fact that powder is usually sold by their
husbands or other male family members, even when the crop
nominally belongs to them. Women’s control over turmeric income is
therefore restricted, though the extent to which this may be an issue
varies from household to household, depending on how decisions are
taken within the household and the uses to which the income is put. It
can be assumed that women’s enthusiasm for turmeric as a crop was
greater when its primary use was in dyeing the mats and other woven
goods which women made. As the market has changed, however, the
benefits from turmeric have become more diffuse, and it remains a
‘women’s crop’ only in the sense that women perform most of the
labour.
47. From this point of view turmeric compares unfavourably with other
crops, like cassava and bananas, which involve less labour and offer
higher returns to these labour inputs. In addition to making more cash
available to household (if not necessarily the women within them) on a
regular basis, these crops are of direct benefit to women and children
because they are also consumed as staples. When alternative
opportunities are available, as they now are in Mwambe, women are
likely to shift their labour out of turmeric and into crops which provide
them with more immediate benefits. This is one reason why turmeric is
not an important crop in resource-poor households: another reason
being their limited access to suitable land. To this extent turmeric
resembles another local spice crop, chillies. Although more land is
available for chilli production, the labour requirements (in this case the
onerous task of harvesting) are such that many householders, and
especially women, will not invest in the crop even though it has an
assured market.
Marketing Constraints
48. Although the market for Mwambe turmeric grew significantly in the
1980s, it appears that this growth has now slowed down considerably.
Indeed many farmers report having difficulty in disposing of their crop,
even though total production in Mwambe is said to have declined.
49. There is little local market now for turmeric dye. The main reason for
this is that the market for dyed mats and similar products from
Mwambe has contracted, largely because of their high cost. This in
turn is a function of the cost of obtaining high quality ukindu (the leaves
of the Wild Date Palm, Phoenix reclinata) from Tanga, which is now
preferred by both producers and customers to the inferior type which
grows in Mwambe. Customers on Pemba also have much less
disposable income than they had in the past, before the decline in
clove prices, and multicoloured mats are a luxury which few people can
now afford.
50. As mentioned above, there is also little demand either on or off the
island for unprocessed rhizomes. Shopkeepers in Pemba usually
demand the processed powder, if they buy it at all. At the time of our
study farmers who did sell reported receiving Tshs 150-200 per kg of
fresh turmeric, while the price of powdered turmeric was in the range of
Tshs 550-600 per kg.
51. The market for powder also appears to have contracted, at least
relative to its supply from Mwambe. It has clearly suffered in
competition with bizari ya mchuzi, ready-mixed curry powder, which is
being brought in from Mombasa (also Tanga) and whose ingredients
(cumin and turmeric) often ultimately originate from India. Many
shopkeepers prefer to stock this good-quality powder rather than buy
the local turmeric (which they or customers mix with imported cumin),
and they order it from the ‘informal’ traders who travel regularly by boat
to the southern Kenya coast. While curry powder containing Mwambe
turmeric is still a common sight in the shops at Mkoani, very few shops
in Wete stock it now, although they did in the past. A quick survey only
found one Wete shopkeeper who bought processed turmeric from
Mwambe, who said he preferred it because of its stronger taste.
52. One of the advantages of imported curry powder over local turmeric is
that it is available all year round. Although it is possible to store
powder, very few Mwambe farmers do so because they prefer to seek
a quick return to their crop. Turmeric is usually planted during the short
rains, in November, and harvested the following October and
November. However, many of them have difficulty in finding buyers
during the peak season, when prices are at their lowest. One Mwambe
farmer interviewed in November 1994 complained that he had three
sacks of turmeric which he had tried to sell but in vain, and similar
experiences were reported by others. Some farmers therefore choose
to harvest early, in September, or after the end of the season, when
prices may be up to 20% higher. Interviewees complained that they
were forced to do this, making it clear that they did so in order to be
sure o a market, rather than just obtain a higher price for their crop.
Middlemen and other buyers tend to come to Mwambe out of season:
during the peak season farmers often have to market their turmeric
themselves.
53. Given these local marketing constraints, there seems to be little
immediate prospect for expansion of the external markets. The export
of turmeric to Unguja has been affected by the same factors which
have led to the contraction of the market within Pemba. Export costs
and procedures further discourage this trade, as they do trade with
Tanga and elsewhere on the mainland.
54. The type and quality of Mwambe turmeric also make it difficult to sell in
any quantity outside of Zanzibar. Two main types of turmeric are
recognised and traded on the international market: Alleppey and
Madras. Allepey is used principally in colouring foodstuffs, while
Madras, which is much more in demand, is used to flavour them.
Mwambe turmeric, like all the turmeric grown in Zanzibar, has been
described as a poor-quality Alleppey type. It has a poor curcumin
content and excessively high oil content, which means that has
insufficient pigments, is difficult to grind, and has too strong a flavour
for most of the market (the feature which one Wete shopkeeper found
attractive). As a result Mwambe turmeric has very poor prospects on
the international market, and is also unlikely to sell well regionally, for
example in Kenya. This is one of the reasons, of course, why even
within Pemba it is suffering in competition with curry powder of Indian
origin imported from Mombasa.
References
Fox, Diana, Salum Shaali Amme, Abdulla Juma Khamis and Awina Omar Issa
1993 Marketing and Transport in Pemba Island, Working Paper No. WP
93/12, Zanzibar Cash Crops Farming Systems Project, Ministy of Agriculture,
Livestock and Natural Resources, Zanzibar.
Fox, Diana and James Packham 1994 Rural Income Earning Opportunities
in Zanzibar with Regional Analysis (2 vols.), Technical Report TR 93/10,
Zanzibar Cash Crops Farming Systems Project, Ministry of Agriculture,
Livestock and Natural Resources, Zanzibar.
Kombo, Abdalla Ali and Rashid Khamis Ali 1992 Turmeric Production and
Marketing in Zanzibar, Working Paper No. WP 92/7, Zanzibar Cash Crops
Farming Systems Project, Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Natural
Resources, Zanzibar.
Woods, Rupert 1994 Spice Strategy Paper: Opportunities for Spice Crops
on Pemba and Strategy for Further Research and Development, Technical
Report TR 94/15, Zanzibar Cash Crops Farming Systems Project, Ministry of
Agriculture, Livestock and Natural Resources, Zanzibar.