Nigeria has the capacity to earn $1.2b from cashew if the sector can be developed.
This claim was made by Krishanu Chakravarty, Chief of Party, TechnoServe of Prosper Cashew Thursday at the 16 African Cashew Alliance (ACA) Annual Cashew Conference in Abuja.
The event was with the theme: “Strengthening Sustainable Kernel & By-product Marketing in the African Cashew Industry.”
He said that the target of the cashew project would be to create more than 26,000 jobs and it could indirectly influence 133,000 citizens into the sector.
According to him, the project will last for five years and it is believed that the biggest strength of Nigeria is its domestic consumption, calling on Nigeria to tap into the market.
” What we are planning to do in Nigeria is to focus on building the supply chain, introducing traceability and improving the market opportunity for the processes, both for domestic and international markets.
”We try to see how to help farmers get access to finance and technical support that will spread across all the countries that we are working with.
”We have mapped the landscape of cashew processing sector in Nigeria, we started thinking seriously on increasing the on production, which will have a big impact on the processing,” he said
He said for the farmers to be successful with processing, it is important that they upscale their production.
”In Nigeria most of the plants are more than 20 years old, we need to plant new trees, there is need to find out the geographical areas we can plant new trees,” he said.
Mr Ojo Ajanaku, National President, National Cashew Association of Nigeria (NCAN), said the association’s objective is to make the sector a profitable one.
” We will not just keep jobs for the people, we will also protect the social lives of our people.
”We need to encourage our farmers to keep cashew planting and it is our responsibility to help farmers protect their trees,” he said. NAN
