Cashew farmers to increase yields

The African Cashew initiative (ACi) says the cashew crop sector represents real potential for development, value creation and the fight against poverty in rural areas.

Global demand for cashew nuts records a continuous growth of about 7 to 10% per year. Africa accounts for 38% of global cashew production but only 5% of global processing; and through local processing there is value addition potential of US$2.8-billion every year, and potential employment for 275,000 people in the processing plants.

“African cashew farmers have a great opportunity to increase yields and feed new processing plants if African governments implement good agricultural practices and adopt improved planting materials,” Ms. Rita Weidinge, Executive Director of ACi, told cashew sector players of the sub-region in Accra at a consultation of African Public and technical Actors in Cashew on the theme ‘Opportunities of the African cashew sector’. 

The workshop was aimed at initiating discussions, common actions and benefits of opportunities in the cashew sector by raising the awareness of national, regional and pan-African institutions’ decision-makers on the sector’s needs, and to make recommendations in order to ensure better organisation of the sector on regional and continental level.

The main objective of the Accra cashew meeting was to address the key issues of cashew supply chains’ functioning, business practices and innovation, instability and interdependence of markets, and the effectiveness of current policies at regional and continental level.

In attendance were financial institutions delegates and other technical partners: including the African Development Bank, Food and Agriculture Organisation, United Nations Industrial Development Organisation, United Nation Development Programme, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the International Trade Centre. 

According to estimates, about 50% of global cashew production is produced by about 1.5 million small-scale farmers in Africa -- with about 90% of these farmers living below the poverty line.

Ms. Weidinge observed that the African cashew sector has experienced developments and fundamental changes in recent years, particularly its financing structure in processing, organisation and marketing -- all accompanied by new requirements in quality standards. These are challenges for all African cashew producing countries.

She urged African governments to invest in production and policy development of the cashew crop sector to increase economic value and enhance private investment, adding that it is imperative for Africa to put in place consistent and coherent strategies in the value chain by investing in research for the sector’s growth. 

She explained that investment in the sector is critical because of growing demand for the world’s favourite nut, explaining that in the past 10 years cashew consumption in India has doubled while that of Europe had grown by 30 percent.

ACi, she said, is targetting tripled processing volumes by 2020, working with and supporting commercial investment and private capital.

“It is important to invest in the sector because of the need for a strong network with the objective of increasing processing of cashews in Africa, improving competitiveness, sustainability and growth in the industry.

“ACI has introduced a Cashew Matching Fund, an effective instrument for private ownership that offers an opportunity for structured investment in the sector scaling-up on activities; such as farmer linkages and market information systems,” she stated. 

She said even though climate change is among the factors affecting the industry, the ACi has established a cashew master-training programme to address some of the regional problems facing the sector. 

Thus, she said, about 400,000 farmers have been trained -- 22% being women -- to increase their income as well as create job opportunity for the youth.

“To meet the demand for cashew, African production needs to grow on average by 8% to 15% per annum from now to 2018 and beyond.”

Mr. Seth Osei Akoto, Deputy Director in charge of Cashew-Ministry of Food and Agriculture, explained that the cashew industry has real potential for developing value chains and creating job opportunities, and fighting against poverty.

“The country needs to strengthen its efforts at exploring ideas and strategies for supporting the cashew value chain activities, even though 90% of raw cashew nuts leave the shores of the country,” Mr. Akoto said remarked.