The Hindu Business Line : India pushed to 3rd place in cashew production

Kochi, Dec 11 India, which had been the pioneer and topper in raw cashew nut production in the world until recently, has lost its position to Vietnam and Nigeria and occupies the third place.

However, it continues to keep its top position in processing and exports using imported raw nuts.

“India failed to keep pace with the cashew development progress achieved by the competing nations”, Dr M. Abdul Salam, Prof and Chairman, Department of Agronomy, KAU College of Agriculture, Vellayani, told Business Line.

FAO statistics clearly indicate that Vietnam has become the highest producer followed by Nigeria, pushing India down to the third slot, he said. During 2005, Vietnam produced 9.61 lakh tonnes of raw cashews followed by Nigeria with 5.94 lakh tonnes. Indian output stood at 5.44 lakh tonnes, he pointed out. “This is definitely a disappointing fact as far as India is concerned”, he said.

Indian cashew processing industry has an installed capacity to process around 1.2 million tonnes of raw cashew nuts. But, the raw nut availability indigenously still remained at around half of its annual requirement. As a result, the imports have been on the increase consistently. As against 2,49,315 tonnes valued at Rs 960.54 crore during 2000-01, the imports in 2006-07 were at 5,92,604 tonnes valued at Rs 1,911.62 crore. Where as, the exports in 2000-01 stood at 89,155 tonnes valued at Rs 2,049.60 crore, which had gone up to 1,19,540 tonnes valued at Rs 2,455.15 crore last fiscal. Thus, there is a continuous outflow of substantial sum of forex, he pointed out.

In fact, in a bid to achieve self-sufficiency in production of raw nuts, the Centre had introduced various schemes in the 9th and 10th Five-year Plans to raise the indigenous production to 10 lakh tonnes by the end of the 10th Plan. However, the achievement remained far short of the target at 6.2 lakh tonnes in 2006-07.

Study on trends

A study on the trends in cashew nut production (three-year moving average) during the past decades clearly indicate that there was only a very slow growth for cashew development in India compared to Vietnam and Nigeria.

During 1990, the global cashew nut production was 7.32 lakh tonnes and it increased to 26.62 lakh tonnes in 2005 indicating a 263 per cent growth (16.4 per cent annual growth). The cashew nut production in Vietnam during 1990 was 1.40 lakh tonnes and it increased to 8.12 lakh tonnes during 2005 showing a 480 per cent growth (30 per cent annual growth).

But, the growth increment in India during the corresponding period was very low. The cashew nut production in the country during 1990 was 2.86 lakh tonnes and that increased to 5.26 lakh tonnes during 2005 registering 83.9 per cent growth (5.3 per cent average annual growth). The data clearly indicate that the growth rate in the country was meagre compared to that of Vietnam and Nigeria and even to world average. “It is true that we have initiated a number of cashew developmental programmes during the recent decades, but our gains cannot be rated as significant”, said Dr Salam, who has done extensive research on high-yielding cashew varieties at the Kerala Agricultural University (KAU)’s Madakkathara centre near Thrissur.

Sustainable cashew industry

India is blessed with enough land resources, congenial climatic environments, adequate man power, and sufficient funding support, in addition to technology, for promoting cashew nut production. No doubt, India continues to be a technology giant with respect to cashew varieties and technologies. Indian researchers have developed over 40 high yielding varieties capable of yielding two to three tonnes of raw nuts per hectare. “We also have developed an agronomic package capable of realising 2-3 tonnes of raw nuts per hectare. But, we are yet to utilise our technology wealth to sustain the somwatic cashew industry. We have over 1000 cashew nut processing factories supporting about five workers and more than half of the raw nut requirement of the processing sector is met by imported raw nuts”. At least to ensure lively hood security of these workers, the country has to double the raw nut production.

Mega mission 2015

To restore the lost glory, he said, “let us promote a Mega mission 2015 for cashew, to be executed from the beginning of the 11th plan period, with a target of at least one million tonne of raw nuts in five years time. Strategies involving promotion of large scale commercial plantations under public as well as private sector, bringing more areas under high yielding varieties in the states of Maharashtra, Andhra, Orissa, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Goa, needs to be considered.

Apart from this promotion of organic cashew nut production, apart from popularising cashew in non-traditional areas and encouraging processing factory-linked cashew plantations by providing leased Government lands, etc., could be considered as certain components of this Mega mission 2015 for cashew, he said.

It is also essential “to setup a powerful institutional frame work to achieve this goal. What is necessary is a strong political will to translate our strengths and opportunities to production”.

It is in this context the setting up of a cashew export development authority (CEDA) becomes relevant for implementing the schemes of the Government for increasing production of raw cashew nuts in the country to arrest and rather stop its dependence on imported raw materials at a time when the nation has immense potentials to become self sufficient in the production of raw cashew nuts, an official source pointed out.

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