‘Nigeria Behind Ghana, Cote D’ Ivoire, Guinea Bissau In Cashew Production’

An expert in agriculture, Mrs. Amina Abdulmalik, has disclosed that Nigeria, which was rated very high in the international market in terms of production capacity of cashew, has been overtaken by countries like Ghana, Cote D’ Ivoire and Guinea Bissau.
Abdulmalik, the Trade Promotion Advisor, Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Lokoja Office, Kogi State, made this known during a workshop organized to provide technical support to enhance the capacity of cashew farmers and processors in Kogi State.
According to her, the technical support enjoyed by farmers and processors through the interventions of government and Development partners in terms of training on best practices and standardisation is largely responsible for the upsurge in their production capacity.
She stated further that: “The capacity has enhanced their farmers to cultivate high yield varieties with short gestation period.
“While most Nigerian cashew farmers still count on aging cashew from the wild, most other countries grow the jumbo size Brazilian type suitable for the international market.
“In order to reverse the trend and increase significantly the annual production output of the country, there is the need to support the farmers and processors with the requisite technical knowledge through an intensive capacity building workshop.
“Virtually all the Local Government Areas in Kogi State have cashew farmers with little or no prerequisite knowledge of cashew value addition. The farmers are faced with challenges of waste, poor packaging, finance, security, infrastructure and lack of basic knowledge of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP)”, she said.
She stressed that it was against this background that the workshop on technical support to farmers and processors of cashew in Kogi has become very necessary and of utmost priority.