The cashew industry requires N100
billion to fund production and boost foreign earning, the Natinal President,
National Cashew Association of Nigeria (NCAN), Pastor Babatola Faseru, ha said.
He spoke at the just-concluded National Cashew Festival Awards in Ilorin, the
capital of Kwara State. He said Nigeria needed to increase its cashew
production, provide high-yielding seedlings to farmers and offer mechanisation
support.
Right now, he said, cashew
provides livelihood for over 300,000 families with 175,00 tons as estimated
production for the year.
Referring to the export
performance of the industry, he pointed out that the foreign exchange earned by
the country through cashew kernels, cashew nut shell liquid and allied products
last year was put at $253 million.
According to him, Nigeria remains
the sixth largest cashew producer after Cote d’Ivoire, India, Vietnam, Tanzania
and Guinea Bissau. He said, however, that the cashew industry has many
challenges, which are threatening its development. These include shrinking of
cultivation area and unstable output.
He said ageing trees and abnormal
weather patterns have decreased yields, and many growers prefer other crops for
higher profits, which has reduced the area under the nut.
This requires a strategy to
enable the industry to develop in a sustainable manner in the coming years.
He urged the government to
support farmers in planting cashew trees to replace old ones, adopt policies to
encourage firms investing in deep processing, and strengthen inspection of exports.
Modern technologies and equipment, he advocated, should be used.
The industry, according to him,
plans to increase the rate of fully processed nuts to satisfy the requirements
of customers, add more value, and boost domestic consumption. He underscored
the association’s cashew value programme that targets raising the value of
exports, promoting consumption both in the domestic and foreign markets and
build brands for the country’s cashew products.
For the programme to be
implemented from this year to 2020, to achieve the target of 500,000 tons, he
urged the government to support cashew industry to boost its economic growth. He
urged the government to create the enabling environment, to attract investments
that will allow the sector to take advantage of the opportunities created by rising global and domestic demand.
He urged the government to
allocate sufficient funds and put forward necessary schemes to increase
production of cashew nut. Considering Nigeria’s stake in global cashew trade,
he requested the government to do more in ensuring the country’s leadership in
the world market.
He called on domestic cashew
businesses to ensure quality control and sticking to delivery dates, and for
producers to use sound cultivation techniques to improve quality of nuts.
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