**11. Conclusions and future outlook**

#### **11.1 West Africa regional cashew improvement programme**

With the establishment of African cashew alliance (ACA), a body responsible for the improvement in the value chain in the African cashew industry in 2006, the investments and production of cashew in West Africa region has been on the steady increase. West African countries like Benin, Burkina Fasso, Cote d'Ivore, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau and Senegal, which have hitherto not been active in cashew production, are now actively investing in the industry. Unfortunately, as indicated in the report of Sustainable Tree Crops Programmes in 2001, collectively the region lacks expertise and improved varieties to support a sustainable cashew industry. Hence, there is the need to evolve a well funded and coordinated regional cashew improvement programme to aggressively develop improved planting materials for the farmers to boost production and improve the livelihood of the rural households. To achieve this, there is the need to carry out extensive survey of cashew growing areas, document the existing genetic resources and evaluate (characterization) these materials for useful agronomic and yield traits using a set of standardized descriptors across the region. With massive production of cashew in Nigeria (highest in Africa), extensive germplasm, and about four decades of research in cashew by the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN) and existing research linkages with other sister institutes in Ghana and Cote D'Ivore, Nigeria is better positioned to serve as a platform for such regional effort. And for smooth implementation and meaningful impact on the rural people, such initiative should be in partnership with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) like Sustainable Tree Crops Programme (STCP), Common Funds for Commodities (CFC), African Cashew Alliance (ACA) and other relevant stakeholders in the industry. Similar effort has been used to reposition cashew industry in the East Africa in the recent past.

In addition, the proposed regional programmes should include, establishment of polyconal seed gardens across cashew growing communities for easy access to improved planting materials, development of hybrid cashew that will out-perform the existing cultivars and routine training and capacity building for all the stakeholders to boost production, enhance value addition and above all, improve standard of living of cashew small holders.

#### **12. References**


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