<p>An ambitious scheme to ensure that raw cashew nuts produced within the State reach the factories of the public-sector Kerala State Cashew Development Corporation (KSCDC) and the Kerala State Cashew Workers Apex Industrial Cooperative Society (Capex) has been finalised by the government.KSCDC chairman S. Jayamohan told a press conference here on Tuesday that the nuts produced in the State had been reaching private factories located outside the State. The native nuts had good quality. He said the scheme formed part of the government steps to convert the KSCDC and the Capex as profit-making organisations.</p> <p>Mr. Jayamohan said that apart from private cultivations, especially in the northern parts of the State, many public sector farms also had large tracts of cashew plantations. Such farms included the Aralam Farm, the Rehabilitation Plantations Limited, the Kollam District Agricultural Farm, the Plantation Corporation, and the State Farming Corporation.</p> <p><strong>Talks on</strong></p> <p>Talks with these producers for procuring the raw cashew nuts produced were in the final stages. Separate district-wise committees would be constituted for deciding the price. The KSCDC was setting up a warehouse at Vadakary for stocking the raw nuts to be procured from the northern parts of the State, he said.</p> <p><strong>New scheme</strong></p> <p>The government was also taking steps to augment raw cashew production in the State. Mr. Jayamohan said the KSCDC was spearheading the scheme. Under its first phase, in Kollam district alone 500 acres would be planted with 40,000 high yielding cashew saplings which would give about 12 kg of raw nuts per tree. He said that as part of the transparency measures, the KSCDC would conduct a social audit after every hundred days of operation.</p>