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Around 16 million cashew trees will be sprayed against pests and diseases by 2019, Ilídio Bande, national director of the National Cashew Institute (INCAJU), announced this week in Mueda, Cabo Delgado province.
Speaking at a national cashew meeting, an event that brought together sub-sector managers, representatives of producer associations and processors, Bande explained that the aim is to put the country back on the list of the crop’s largest producers.
Bande said that in recent years the government had been implementing policies and strategies aimed at improving the levels of production and marketing of cashew nuts, with the result that in the 2016-17 marketing year about 140,000 tons were traded, a quantity that increased the income of the families and the revenues of the State.
Households are estimated to have earned a total of US$98 million, while exporting companies accounted for US$106 million resulting from the sale of 68,000 tons of raw cashew. The domestic industry earned US$65 million from exports.
The director of cashew nut producers association said that the state had received about US$18 million from the surcharge it levies on the export of raw nuts. These gains were augmented by others resulting from the processing of cashew juice, brandy and other products.
At present, the cashew sub-sector guarantees about 13,000 jobs in 12 processing units. Six more units are expected to come on stream in the coming months.
“Notwithstanding the encouraging results, we are sure that the country is capable of a lot more, so it is our expectation that by the end of this five-year period, marketing levels of cashew nuts will reach 180,000 tons per year and national processing, 100,000 tons,” Bande said.
For that to happen, Bande said it was necessary to increase investment in integrated cashew management, cleaning of production areas, prevention and control of fires, and research into the expansion of plantations to semi-arid zones.
Among the areas considered semi-arid, the INCAJU director mentioned Manica, Sofala, Inhambane, Gaza and southern Niassa provinces.
The national INCAJU director Bande also announced a special survey to gather information relevant to strategic planning and decision-making. The new inquiry will be officially launched in Gaza province.
This is the second national survey, the first having been conducted by the World Bank in 1997, and is taking place at a time when production is growing. Access to products and technology, technical assistance, cashew production, production and marketing volume and the role of cashew in the income of rural families will be among the items surveyed.
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