Cashew takes root in non-traditional areas to help meet growing demand

Cultivation of cashew, a tree crop that when dominated the Western Ghats areas of Goa, Coastal Karnataka and Kerala, has identified its way into the non-traditional regions in plains across the place.

Next the government’s thrust to broaden cashew cultivation in the place, farmers have been getting up cultivation of the nuts across a number of States.

Gurunath Odugoudar, a farmer from the Gadag district in North Karnataka, claimed that a major growth programme began about a few a long time ago in his region.

 

Convenient crop

Some farmers who had taken up cashew cultivation in a non-traditional region like Gadag 5 a long time ago, are very joyful with the returns when in comparison to other plantation crops such as mango and field crops like groundnut.

Odugoudar claimed cashew cultivation is most popular mainly because it incurs fewer upkeep costs, is quick to harvest, is non-perishable in mother nature and quick to sector.

Agreeing with this, Santosh Saranadagoudar, a cashew grower from the Koppal district of Karnataka, claimed that growers can harvest the crop at their convenience and shop it. Several other horticulture crops grown in the Koppal region ought to be harvested when completely ready and taken to the sector quickly.

Terming cashew as a ensure crop, Saranadagoudar, who grows the nuts in about ten acres, claimed it is quick to handle and manage.

Stating that basic regions such as Gadag and Koppal noticed reduced rainfall from 2013-18, Saranadagoudar claimed there was extreme h2o scarcity in the summer. Several farmers who had been dependent on rain-fed mango plantations, had been impacted in the course of April-May possibly. Next this, some farmers begun planting cashew as an intercrop with mango in Gadag region as it demanded much less watering in summer in comparison to other horticultural crops in the region, he claimed.

Odugoudar claimed that uncooked cashew from Gadag had fetched top quality prices, about ₹20-thirty far more for each kg, in comparison to traditional region generate in the past a long time.

It’s not just farmers in the dry lands of North Karnataka are have diversified into cashew cultivation. The region beneath cashew has been growing in States such as Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, among other people, claimed Venkatesh Hubballi, Director of the Kochi-dependent Directorate of Cashew and Cocoa Advancement.

Cashew cultivation can be expanded to a further 14 lakh hectares in addition to the existing 11 lakh hectares in the place as the intake of the nuts has been escalating by 15-20 for each cent each individual yr, Hubballi included.

Production of uncooked cashew nuts in the place stood at seven.forty two lakh tonnes in the course of 2018-19 as versus six.70 lakh tonnes in 2015-16.

Bola Rahul Kamath, proprietor of the Karkala-dependent Bola Surendra Kamath & Sons, had just lately told BusinessLine that India imported all-around seven.5 lakh tonnes of uncooked cashew nuts in 2019.

Hubballi claimed all-around seventy eight,434 hectares have been introduced beneath cashew cultivation in traditional and non-traditional regions among 2015-16 and 2019-20 by the initiatives of Central and Point out governments.

Stating that Odisha is foremost in the growth of region beneath cashew cultivation, Hubballi claimed it is covering far more than ten,000 hectares for each yr. Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu come upcoming.

There is fantastic prospective to broaden cashew cultivation in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Gujarat as effectively.

“India could come to be self-reliant in cashew manufacturing, if all the 14 lakh hectares come beneath cashew cultivation. There will be no need to import at all,” Hubballi included.

Processing

K Prakash Rao, spouse at the Mangaluru-dependent Kalbavi Cashews, claimed that when the cashew sapling was very first introduced by the Portuguese to Goa, cultivation distribute to neighbouring States of Karnataka and Kerala. Next this, the cashew-processing marketplace made and was concentrated in these a few States. With cashew plantations growing to Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, they, as well, became processing centres.

Now, with mechanisation turning into the order of the working day, cashew processing facilities have been coming up across the place, the place the imported uncooked cashew nuts are processed.

Rao claimed Gujarat has more than fifty cashew processing models, all in the little and MSME sector. Equally, factories are now coming up in Mumbai, Delhi, and Rajasthan, Rao claimed.

To a query on the potential clients of setting up processing models in non-traditional regions, Odugoudar claimed Gadag farmers have planned for it beneath the Rurban scheme.

India has all-around three,000 cashew processing models, together with those in the little and MSME sector. According to Karnataka Cashew Manufacturers’ Affiliation, the Point out has all-around three hundred cashew processing models.