BANGALORE (Commodity Online): India government has formed may plans to increase the cashew production of the country from the current 6.13 lakh tons to 15 lakh tons by 2013-14.
The main aim is to make the country self-sufficient in cashew production.
The establishment of cashew board is one idea to improve the production as it will help the sector receive the much-needed drive for the growth of the cashew industry in the country.
The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) had come out with a draft plan to improve the production.
One of the plans was to introduce a cashew board in India to help the growers.
The draft plan was prepared at a session in the Directorate of Cashew and Cocoa Development, Kochi. In the session many experts from different centre’s of ICAR , scientists , experts from agriculture universities, government sector. They all have contributed ideas to improve the production.
The experts in the session has recommended the need for using multi-cropping and developing technologies to use cashew nut waste to increase the income of farmers.
It has been recommended to have high density cultivation of varieties which include Bhashara, Vengurla, Ullalm Madakathara and Goa-1 across Karnataka, Goa and Kerala.
India is also importing cashew from certain African countries to meet the demand and supply gap and the total value is around 6.5 lakh tons. Currently, the production is 695 kg per hectare which is far below the average of the world output of 816 kg per hectare which according to The National Research Centre for Cashew (NRCC).
The cashew plantation spread over 9.23 lakh hectares and is largely in the small and medium sector which has the capacity to increase the production to 12 lakh raw cashew nuts annually. However, the low productivity from the cashew plantations is not allowing the industry to maximize the production, stated officials from NRCC quoted by FnBnews as saying.
