<p></p><p>THE National Cashew Association of Nigeria has said that the country is currently earning over N24 billion from the trading and export of the product.The Publicity Secretary of the association, Mr. Anga Sotonye told The Guardian at the weekend that with more encouragement from the Federal Government, the country could earn more from the cash crop.</p> <p>He said that the sector has not received much support from the government from the past years, which he added, has resulted to poor farm yield that has made it impossible for farmers to produce more for exports.Sotonye stated, “as it stands today cashew trees in Nigeria are an endangered crop and most of the cashew trees are turned into firewood, charcoal and some farmers are cutting down there cashew trees and replacing the cashew farms with crops that can fetch more money. If this trend continues, we may wake up some day to find that Nigeria no longer grows cashew. As bad as it is today Nigeria is the 4th largest producer of cashew nuts in Africa but if the right attention is given to the cashew sector, Nigeria can become number one because we have all that it takes to become number one. </p><p>“Nigeria produces 120,000 tonnes of cashew nuts and 95 per cent of the yearly production is exported as raw products. This situation has rendered the cashew industry, which provides over 600,000 jobs to be vulnerable, impoverished and easily exploited by various countries that buy raw cashew nuts from Nigeria.”Speaking on the way forward, he emphasised the need for the government to concentrate its resources on establishing cashew processing centres that will process and add value to the country’s cashew industry. </p><p>He stated: “We have to plant 300,000 new high yielding cashew varieties between 2013 and 2014 to gradually replace the over aged cashew trees. There is need to provide jute bags at subsidised rate to pack our raw cashew nuts after harvest and retain the quality and integrity of our raw cashew nuts.“This way we will create jobs, empower our people, pay higher for raw cashew nuts and protect our market.“Today in our supermarkets you find various brands of processed cashew nuts, which are bought by Nigerians even though they are very expensive. If we look inwards we will realise there is a huge local market for processed cashew nut in Nigeria that is largely untapped. The simple question begging for answer is, why do we import processed cashew nuts? </p><p>“In line with the Federal Government transformation agenda it is well placed to change the game plan and reposition the Nigerian cashew Industry by deliberately supporting and encouraging the cashew value chain as the sector has the capacity to create over a million jobs and earn foreign exchange for the nation.”Sotonya disclosed that Nigeria has about 600,000 surviving cashew trees spread across the east west, south and north of Nigeria, with an average yield of about 200kg – 400kg per Hectare and over 80 per cent of our cashew trees are over aged. </p><p>“Today in Nigeria we have cashew trees still fruiting and yielding the much needed cashew nuts at over 60 years old. This again explains the reason behind the low productivity of our cashew trees and why urgent steps must be taking to give life and boost the productivity of cashew which today is a National crop,” he added. </p><p> </p><br><p></p>