**2. Cashew economy and production**

The world produced about 3.4 million tons of raw cashew nuts in 2009 (FAO, 2011) and about one-third of the world cashew nut production comes from Africa with 50% of the continent exports from Nigeria (FAO, 2011) (Table 1). Cashew nut is one of the important agricultural commodities in Africa and has been contributing to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), National Income (NI) and foreign exchange earnings of many of the African cashew

spongy mesocarp which contains some acidic oil called cashew nut shell liquid (CNSL). The liquid has been reported for a number of potential industrial uses e.g. for brake linings, paints and vanishes etc. The juice derived from the fresh cashew apples contains high content of vitamin C, about three times higher than in citrus and pawpaw. This characteristic informed fresh consumption of cashew apples by many people, but unfortunately, this pseudo-fruit can only be kept afresh for a short time after harvesting

Fig. 1. The most economic products of cashew tree (i.e. hypocarps or apples, the nuts and its

The world produced about 3.4 million tons of raw cashew nuts in 2009 (FAO, 2011) and about one-third of the world cashew nut production comes from Africa with 50% of the continent exports from Nigeria (FAO, 2011) (Table 1). Cashew nut is one of the important agricultural commodities in Africa and has been contributing to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), National Income (NI) and foreign exchange earnings of many of the African cashew

derivative kernels after shelling). (Fruit photo from Topper et al., 2001).

**2. Cashew economy and production** 

**Pseudo-fruit (apple)** 

**Shelled kernels derived from the nuts** 

**Withered flowers**

**Nut** 

because of it high sucrose content that aid rapid degradation (rotten).

producing nations. For example, cashew is not only one of the export commodity crops in Nigeria but a major source of livelihood for many smallholder farmers especially in the eastern and central parts of Nigeria (Topper et al., 2001). Cashew industry has play important role in the realization of the economic development of many of the African states, and has been one of the veritable platforms for the achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) through economic empowerment of smallholder farmers and rural women, employment generation and small-medium scale industrialization especially in the rural areas (Fig. 2). Because it is currently a predominantly smallholder crop mostly grown as a monocrop though can be intercropped with food crops like cassava, cocoyam, cowpea, ground-nut, maize, pineapple and yam at the early stage of the crop development, cashew farming has been and would continue to provide jobs for teeming rural populace especially the women and youths.

Cashew thrives in a woodland-tall-grass savanna and dry-rainforest ecologies, and such ideal vegetations spread across about thirty (30) states in Nigeria and twenty-seven (27) of these effectively growing cashew as a commodity crop (Figure 3). The producing states are categorized into minor i.e. those with less than 10,000 hectares and major with greater than 10,000 hectares of cashew farms. The minor producing states are mostly from the southwest, south-south and north-eastern states because they combine cashew with other major commodity crops like cocoa, oil-palm, rubber and kola in the south and cereals and pulses in the north. By contrast, states with major plantations are spread across central and southeastern states where emphasis is on cashew production. As a matter of fact, survey of cashew production across the country in 2001 revealed that less than 20% of available cropable lands are under cultivation in most of these states (Topper et al., 2001), which imply prospect for future expansion.


Source: FAO 2011 http://faostat.fao.org/site/567/DesktopDefault.aspx?PageID=567#ancor N/A: Data not available.

Table 1. Cashew production (tons) in some African countries, total production for Africa and the world, and the percentage of Africa's production in the world for the period 1961 to 2009.

Fig. 2. Rural women separating nuts from pseudo-fruits (apple) i.e. postharvest processing (up) and grading of kernels after shelling before packaging (bottom). (Photos from Ghana Cashew Development Project report).

Fig. 2. Rural women separating nuts from pseudo-fruits (apple) i.e. postharvest processing (up) and grading of kernels after shelling before packaging (bottom). (Photos from Ghana

Cashew Development Project report).

By 1995, the total land area cultivated to cashew in Nigeria was about 40,000 hectares with about 60% by small holders, 20% grow in the "wild", and 20% by the medium-large scale farmers. Currently, cashew cultivation has increased to about 330, 000 hectares (FAO, 2011) (Table 2) and consequently, annual nut production has been on the steady increase too, from 30,000 metric tons in the 1990 to 727,000 metric tons in the 2007 (FAO, 2011) (Table 2). The improvement in production has been attributed largely to increased cultivation and favourable economic policy that encourage more private sector investments.

Fig. 3. Point of cashew introduction into Nigeria (Agege, Lagos) in the 16th century and the current production spread across 15 major and 12 minor producing states.
