By Daniel Gumm

IN an effort geared towards empowering the people and supporting government initiatives to grow the economy, the new executive of the National Cashew Association of Nigeria (NCAN) has planned ways of improving cashew quality and regulation of its trade to provide enabling environment for all stakeholders.

“And plans are on to work with government to ensure that we have agro-chemicals provided for NCAN because we want to move the volume from where we are today (100,000 tons) to 300,000 tons in about three years,” Mr. Tola Faseru, National President of the association said in Lagos at a global press brifing.

The NCAN boss said cashew as a plant,” widely spreads across Nigeria as it grows in the North, South-East, South-West and South-South and there is an improvement in what we have had before, it has undergone a lot of changes.”

He said that his association was bringing a lot of changes to the industry, “we are going to tackle the challenges; we are going to put every player in the cashew industry on his or her toes to achieve remarkable development in the industry; and during our tenure we have created a worthwhile legacy for the industry.”

“The first thing we want to do is to boost cashew production in Nigeria. Nigeria has a vast land scape where the product could thrive well in no time.”

Over 200,000 farmers are engaged in cashew farming in Nigeria, and the nation is key member of the African Cashew Alliance (ACA).

Faseru said if the industry is properly developed, it is worth about N150/N200 billion and called on government to set aside funds for the development of the industry as it is in other sectors like cocoa, so that cashew farmers can readily assess funds.

He said the industry needed N5 billion for development, “we can run with that; we want duty waiver on jute bags; grant friendly loans to potential cashew farmers and processors; we want cashew to be put in the agricultural policy of the government.

On challenges in the cashew industry he explained that it could be traced to the way cashew came into the Nigeria, “because nobody was looking into the crop for commercial quantity as it was been used to check erosion at that time. But now, cashew can grow the economy of the nation if it is well coordinated by working with the various state governments, Federal Government and our international partners.”

“Nigerian cashew nuts command the lowest price in the international market, other cashew growing nations earn $250 above what Nigeria earns, this is unaceptable to NCAN, and we want to change that.

“We are also going to get jute bags for cashew farmers at very moderate rate to enhance their packaging; we are going forward to improve regulation of cashew trade, we are going to see that every stakeholder in the trade is well protected.”