Mtwara — THE CASHEWNUT Board of Tanzania (CBT) is tomorrow expected to start registering cashew growers in the country to update the board's database towards understanding their needs.

CBT Acting Director General Alfred Francis said here that the exercise will also help the Ministry of Agriculture to come up with better plans that will ensure smooth access of resources to cashew growers countrywide.

"The registration aims at updating database for all the cashew farmers in the country towards enabling various plans for development of the cashew crop in the country," he said.

He said the plan will help the government in purchasing and distributing agricultural inputs, distribution of seedlings and provision of extension services.

Mr Francis further said that the profiling of cashew farmers will also help the government to put in place better plans to access markets as well as ensuring processing of cashewnuts.

He said the exercise will be launched in Mtwara Region and later extended to other cashew growing regions.

Mtwara Regional Commissioner (RC) Colonel Ahmed Abbas will officially launch the exercise at Naliendele Ward in Mtwara District Council.

The exercise would later be extended to other cashew growing regions in the country.

Mr Francis called on cashew growers to collect their useful documents and present them at the registration centres to ensure efficiency.

"I call upon all the cashewnuts growers to prepare themselves well by ensuring they have the required documents needed for them to be registered," he said.

Mr Francis said after the registration, each farmer will be provided with special ID number that will enable each of them to receive various cashew crop services needed including agricultural inputs.