<p>With the rise in demand for better quality and more variety of cashew products, farmers and young entrepreneurs are expressing an interest in enhancing the unit value realisation.Horticulture departments of various State governments were in touch with the Mysuru-based Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI) to organise customised farmer-centric training programmes for shorter durations. The institute has already geared up to meet the demands on a continual basis.</p> <p>With the support from Maharashtra State Industry Department, CSIR-CFTRI had organised a three-day workshop under a framework of cluster development and farmer-centric workshops at the institute. The participants included farmers from Maharashtra.The workshop focused mainly on value-added products from cashew nuts, packaging requirements, cashew apple juice, regulatory and safety issues. A series of similar cluster development programmes have been lined up to empower farmers and producer companies.</p> <p>Maharashtra is one of the major States in the country producing cashew crop by cultivating it on 1.81 lakh hectares. Currently, around one lakh farmers are involved in the production, processing and marketing of cashew in the Konkan region, a release stated here.A majority of these are marginal farmers and they are supplying raw cashew nuts to the market. Middlemen exploit them with meagre value realisation for their produce. However, the demand for cashew nuts is on the rise and the country has realised ₹5,600 crore worth export of cashew nuts and allied products in last year, the release added.Prof. Ram Rajasekharan, director, CFTRI, distributed certificates to the participants of the programme.</p>