Maputo — Uncontrolled bush fires are severely damaging Mozambique's cashew nut production, according to a report in Thursday's issue of the Maputo daily "Noticias".

Filomena Maiopue, National Director of the Cashew Promotion Institute (INCAJU), has warned that this is one of the factors jeopardizing the target of harvesting 90-95,000 tonnes of cashew nuts in the current campaign.

Speaking on Tuesday in the small town of Itoculo, in the northern province of Nampula, at a ceremony to launch the cashew marketing campaign, Maiopue admitted that bush fires have been running of control.

"I could say that INCAJU is starting to feel powerless to check this phenomenon across the country, particularly in the cashew producing provinces, because it is gaining alarming proportions year after year", she said. Nonetheless INCAJU, "in coordination with the district governments, will work with the communities to discourage them from this practice".

Maiopue said she not have statistics on the number of cashew trees destroyed by bush fires this year, but said that the phenomenon had affected many thousands of trees of productive age. The fires meant that money and efforts spent on treating the trees with chemicals to protect them from fungal diseases had been wasted.

Maiopue said "we will keep investing in education and in raising awareness among the communities about the damage caused by fires to the national economy, and to household incomes in particular".

"On the other hand, we shall also empower government institutions with material and financial resources to attain success in the fight against uncontrolled bush fires", she added.