Enugu State government has flagged off the 2024 National Cashew Day and Cashew Season, with an assurance to boost the industry and make the state the hub of cashew production in Nigeria. The state Commissioner for Agriculture and Agro-Industrialization, Hon Patrick Ubru, who officially flagged-off the 2024 cashew trading season at an event organised by the National Cashew Association of Nigeria (NCAN), in Enugu, noted that Enugu State is known as a land for cashew production in the country. Speaking on the theme, “Transforming Nigeria cashew industry through Technology, Innovation and Inclusive policies”, the commissioner commended the leadership of NCAN for choosing Enugu State for this year’s event noting that the state had played a central role in the production of cashew in Nigeria over the years. He recounted how the national production of cashew went down from splendour in the early 1960s to a distant 14th position on the rung of the ladder, far behind neighbours like Cote D’Ivoire, Benin and Mali. Ubru said that agriculture is expected to play a significant part of driving private sector investment due to the endowment of arable lands, favourable climate patterns and also agriculture being a natural occupation of most of majority of the people in the state making cashew one of the focal crops alongside cassava, rice, oil palm and variety of spices. In a key note address presented by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt Hon. Tajudeen Abbas who was represented by the Chairman, House Committee on Agriculture, Dr Adeyemi Akinyemi, commended the Enugu State government for enacting policies since assumption of office which directed at the revamping of agriculture and making Enugu a productive state.