<p><strong>An estimated $11 bil­lion (N1.7 trillion) in­vestment in Nigeria’s agricultural sector by pri­vate investors and develop­ment partners since the Fed­eral Government’s launch of the Agricultural Transfor­mation Agenda in 2011 may be facing a huge setback, with negligence, lack of value addition and poor pro­cessing of the cashew subsec­tor by stakeholders. Already, indications have shown that while other sec­tors are receiving attention and huge investments from both the private sector and Federal Government under its Agricul­tural Transformation Agenda (ATA), the reverse seems to be the case for cashew sector.</strong></p> <p><strong>Stakeholders, farmers and major players in the cashew in­dustry alleged that the Federal Government’s total neglect of this sector would always affect the agricultural transformation agenda and investment goals. This declining support to cashew has been attributed to substandard export packaging processes for the international market, where Nigeria is los­ing about N180 billions per annum. Nigeria is therefore said to be losing a whopping $50 mil­lion in export earnings yearly due to the rejection of poor quality nuts popularly referred to as export rejects as result of lack of proper attention from government.</strong></p> <p><strong>Cashew which is an im­portant industrial and export crop whose potential is yet to be fully exploited in Nigeria is said to provide livelihood for over 300,000 families and has created 600, 0000 jobs with 80 per cent of raw cashew nuts from Nigeria exported to In­dia, Vietnam and other coun­tries. Nigeria is also said to be earning over N24 billion in­comes from cashew nuts an­nually and also earns about N35 billion from cashew nuts alone being exported.</strong></p> <p><strong>The main cashew products are raw nuts, cashew kernels, cashew apple and cashew nut shell liquid which are all trad­ed on the international market. The production of cashew nut is mostly in the hands of small-scale farmers who are still suffering lack of support from government. In Nigeria, cashew grows successfully in virtually all agro-ecological zones in­cluding the semi-arid areas but with high concentration in the middle belt areas in smallholder farms and plan­tations. Cashew production comes from over 28 states including Kogi, Kwara,Oyo, Edo, Ondo, Anambra, Enugu, Benue, Cross River, Imo, So­koto, Nassarawa, Ogun Osun, Plateau, Kebbi and the Fed­eral Capital Territory (FCT) among others.</strong></p> <p><strong>Unfortunately, the Nigerian cashew industry is still suffer­ing from declining produc­tivity and dwindling export earnings, thus making the commodity less competitive in the international market, compared with other African countries like Gabon, Cote d’Ivoire, Benin Republic and Ghana. Over 30 per cent of cashew nuts produced in Ni­geria annually are smuggled across the border as a result of price discrepancy in products moved into the global market by other countries like Be­nin Republic where the crop fetches a premium in the inter­national market.</strong></p> <p><strong>According to the Managing Director of Universal Quest Limited, Sotonye Anga, the sector needs attention and support from Federal Govern­ment, saying that it has been neglected for a long time and Nigerian farmers in the ca­shew sector are suffering. He said that farmers couldn’t afford to buy the right materials for packing cashew, which makes them to resort to using substandard materials for packaging cashew. He ex­plained that the right material for packing cashew is jute bag, and a piece of jute bag sells for N350,000 and because farmers cannot afford the jute bag, they use polypropolyn bag, which sells for N5. Cur­rently, there is no jute bags production in Nigeria. All the jute bags used in Nigeria are imported and the kind of duty paid on it is high which result to high cost jute bag and makes the bags unfriendly for farmers.</strong></p> <p><strong>Anga who is also the Spokesman for National As­sociation of Cashew Asso­ciation of Nigeria, said: “Most times, what you see on those fairly used jute bags are prod­uct of Ivory Coast and Ghana. We lost our identity as a nation producing cashew because there is no product from Nige­ria on those jute bags because the fairly used jute bag carries different names. The fairly used jute bag is weak in nature and in strength. Sometimes it is contaminated because the bags have been used in pack­aging stockfish and when you use it to package cashew, the cashew’s smell will now turn to stockfish. All these things are affecting the image of Ni­geria and it is not good for our brand integrity because we are talking about brand iden­tity, national pride and cashew economy.</strong></p> <p><strong>He said that government should grant the association 100 per cent duty waiver on jute bags import in order to rescue cashew industry, add­ing that government should also invest more to improve seedling production so that farmers can cultivate more ar­eas with cashew. He urged Federal Govern­ment to set aside N10 billion-intervention fund, which will be utilised in creating infra­structures to process cashew such that Nigerians who are interested in cashew value ad­dition, can access the fund. He arged that government needs to understand that there is need for cashing-in, in the cash in cashew. He added that there is need to set up cashew factory in Ni­geria, which will create jobs, reduce unemployment, reduce poverty and increase revenue, adding that if proper attention is given to the cashew indus­try, Nigeria has the potential of generating revenue of 1trillion annually instead of N35 billion it is generating presently.</strong></p> <p><strong>However, the Head of De­partment, Aulticulture, Col­lege of Agriculture, Kabba- Kogi State, Dr. F.K Ogundare said that the cashew was not the only crop that is being ne­glected, saying that there are about three crops which are not getting attentions includ­ing citrus, pineapple and ko­lanut. He added: “the major prob­lem is lack of awareness be­cause people are not aware of the economic relevance of such products. We have inad­equate processing facilities, majorly cashew remains ex­ported but that is why produc­tion has been on the high level because people don’t consume it here. We don’t know how to pro­cess it which is the juice and it becomes a waste. Majority of people considered it as a waste and they don’t want to go into it because it’s a waste.”</strong></p> <p> </p>