People in the constituency and other parts of Lindi Region depend on seasonal small scale farming which starts in December to March. After that they remain idle for nine months.
Single mother of five, Juliet Samson describes this period of idleness (off-season) as very difficult and painful as they lack basic necessities ranging from salt to maize flour.
“I can tell you brother after the farming season is over life here becomes very difficult especially to us single mothers, we even fail to buy salt, soap, life is very hard,” she says.
Her sour story is shared by Amina Mohamed, another woman, who said poverty is perennial in the area and this forces some women to engage themselves in prostitution so as to earn a living.
Mtama like many other places in Lindi are sashew nut growing areas and the two said in the past they tried to farm the crop and sell their produce to a community cashew nut association, but the prices were too low to serve and sustain their families.
“There have been many times when it took over a year to get paid, due to this others cut down cashew nut trees to sell them for firewood and charcorl,” Juiet Samson says.
But today Juliet and Amina can afford a smile and tell a different story. What happened?
With a population of just over 20,000, Mtama constituency is one of the least developed areas in the region but had a turning point two years ago.
Their fortune story changed for better in 2014 when Sun Shine Tanzania Industry opened a cashew nut factory in the area at a warehouse belonging to Lindi Cashew nut Farmers Association.
The company employs over 350 people from within the area, three quarters of them being women.
Amina and Juliet are among the women working at the factory and say the money they get at the end of the week is attractive and motivates them to work extra harder.
“It never crossed my minds that my life has transformed almost overnight. Today I can buy some of the things which I need for my family and myself. It is like a dream to us that this warehouse which was just idle for many years is bringing us such a steady income we are getting now. Without this company I don’t know what could have been our source of income,” say Amina.
Human Resource (HR) of Sun Shine Cashew nut factory Jabiri Nangameta said the opening of the factory in the area has changed the lives of many people in the constituency who depend on farming.He said the main problem in the area is that farming activities are done in only four month.
“The coming of this Sun Shine Cashew nut factory here in Mtama has changed the lives of many people, not only workers of the company but even economic activities have improved here, people are selling their products to our workers and other things,” he said.
Nangameta says his company buys between 50 and 60 tones of cashew nut annually and complained that the stock is not enough for the whole year.
“ Due to the ban on cashew nut importation, when our stock is over we are forced to send some of our workers on leave, we cannot keep all of our workers here when production is over, but if the importation is lifted we can keep them the whole year and even employ more people.” he says.
Nangameta’s sentiments were shared by Han Xue Hui, who is the deputy director of Sun Shine group, who said his company has plans to employ more people at their Mtama factory but cannot do that due to the importation ban on cashew nut.
He also said this year they have plans to open new cashew nut factories in Ruangwa and Nachingwea districts which will employ over 1000 people from within the two districts.
The Sun Shine deputy director said this at a function in Ruangwa district where his company donated school desks to the Prime Minister (PM) Majaliwa Casimu Majaliwa.
“ We have been in Tanzania since 2012 and now we have 15 subsidiaries and joint ventures that are engaged in different fields of business, here in Lindi we are running a factory at Mtama to process and export cashew nut, we have created over 1000 jobs for Tanzanians under Sun Shine group.
“Our local staff are the backbone of the company, thanks for their efforts and contribution, we have gained our stand in Tanzania ...working and living together, our employees are just like a family,” he said.
Han Xue Hui informed the PM that his company has donated the school desks in the district as their aim is to see many people in the district attain good education so that they can get jobs at their factories.
“We have a factory here in Lindi Region and we plan to open two more factories here, we want people from this region to get good and desired education so that they can work efficiently at our factories … you know it is only educated people who can work well everywhere,” he says .
At the function the PM thanked the company for the donated desks saying they will help to improve education in the area.
“I really thank our Chinese friends for this donation which will go a long way in eradicating the desk challenges which the district faces.
Currently we have a shortage of 23,000 desks in all schools in the district, the 140 desks we have received today will help 380 pupils from primary schools of Namtambo, Michenga in Gulioni and Nachiungo. I am asking others to emulate this good gesture,” he says.
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