Lokoja – The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) says one of the key challenges facing the cashew sector is the country’s inability to meet quality standards required for market success.
Mrs Amina Abdulmalik, the NEPC Trade promotion Advisor who stated this on Thursday in Lokoja also identified inability of farmers and processors to access loan facilities as another major challenge.
Abdulmalik spoke in Lokoja at the opening of a one-day workshop on technical support to enhance the capacity of cashew farmers and processors.
According to her, the development has made Nigeria to lose its number one position in the cultivations and processing of cashew in Africa.
She, however, said that Nigeria is still ranked sixth among top 10 Raw Cashew nut (RCN) producing countries in the world but has dropped to fourth position in Africa behind Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau and Tanzania.
” The country was at a time rated very high in the international market in terms of production capacity only to be overtaken by countries like Ghana, Cote D’ Ivoire and Guinea Bissau.
“The technical support enjoyed by farmers and processors through the interventions of their home governments and Development Partners in terms of training on best practices and standardization is largely responsible for the upsurge in their production capacity.
“The capacity has enhanced their farmers to cultivate high yield varieties with short gestation period while most Nigerian cashew farmers still count on ageing cashew from the wild, most other countries grow the jumbo size Brazilian type suitable for the international market,” She said.
To reverse the trend and restore Nigeria’s lost glory in the area of cashew farming and processing, Abdulmalik stated that government has initiated some policies and programmes.
According to her, this include organising series of intensive capacity building workshops for cashew farmers and processor in Kogi State and other parts of the country.
She explained that the country still has a bright future in the sector with a cultivated area of 325,000 hectares with annual production of about 320,000 metric tons according to FAO 2015 statistics.
” Production areas include Enugu, Abia, Imo, Anambra and Ebonyi in the South East. The South West has Oyo, Osun, Ondo, Ekiti, and Ogun states as predominantly cashew producing areas.
“In the North Central almost every state fall within the cashew belt. However, states like Kwara, Kogi, Nasarawa, Benue, Niger and the FCT add significantly to the over- all output of the country,” She explained.
To increase the annual production output of cashew in the country , She stressed the need to support the farmers and processors with the requisite technical knowledge through regular intensive capacity building workshop.
” Virtually all the local government areas in Kogi State have cashew farmers with little or know prerequisite knowledge of cashew value addition.
“The farmers are faced with challenges of waste, poor packaging, finance, security, infrastructure and lack of basic knowledge of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP),” she said.
Abdulmalik stated that the special attention being paid to cashew farmers and processors in Kogi State was deliberate and strategic because the state is the leading producer of cashew in the country.
“This workshop on technical support to farmers and processors of cashew in Kogi has become very necessary and of utmost priority.
“The NEPC is passionate and committed to the development of non-oil export,” She said.
Aside plans to increase production output , the Advisor said efforts were also being made to encourage value addition through the establishment of processing centres in partnership with the private sector.
She then called on stakeholder’s/key players in the cashew production sector to abstain from wrong practices whatsoever to improve business efficiency, resulting from good agricultural practices to propagate the exportation of Nigerian cashew.
“The council wish to see that farmers, producers and processors produce quality products that conform to international quality requirements and standard, thereby enhancing agricultural productivity,” She explained.
The Association of Cashew Farmers, Aggregators and Processors of Nigeria (ACFAP) called on the Federal Government to the aid of its members who were badly affected by the outbreak of COVID-19 and insurgency across the country.
The National Publicity Secretary of ACFAP, Mr Gabriel Enemali said that the revival of the cashew sector would depend to a large extent on government’s readiness to provide the necessary wherewithal to farmers and processors. (vitalnews)
