The Hindu Business Line : Vietnam pips India in cashew production as yield declines

Cashew production is lower despite availability of technology and high-yielding varieties. This is because the finds of the lab are yet to reach the land.

Kochi , July 6

RAW cashew nut production in India has become stagnant in recent years despite good technology and high yielding varieties being available in the country. This has resulted in the country losing its top position to Vietnam, which has now become the major producer in the world.

The raw nut production in the country is 4.5 lakh tonne from a total area of 7.3 lakh hectare. The yield per hectare is only 630 kg. There has been a substantial growth in area, which has gone up from 2 lakh hectare in 1961 to 5.31 lakh hectare in 1991 to 7.2 lakh hectare in 2001 and 7.3 lakh hectare in 2003. But there has not been a corresponding growth in production, according to Dr M. Abdul Salam, an expert on cashew cultivation and Associate Dean, College of Agriculture, Kasargod.

"There is no dearth of technology. High yielding varieties have been developed here," he told Business Line. According to him the stagnancy is "purely due to our inability to execute our developmental programmes".

He said Rs 45 crore was spent for development of cashew in the Eighth Plan. Allocations for the Ninth and Tenth Plans were Rs 70 crore and Rs 127.41 crore. Due to lack of proper extension services, the results of the research have still remain in the labs and they have not reached the growers.

"On the other hand large scale plantations need to be encouraged under corporate farming," he said. Then only scientific cultivation could be taken up, as such cultivation is impossible in smallholdings, he claimed.

Vietnam, which started cultivation of cashew in a big way, had produced 6.37 lakh tonne of raw nuts in 2003 from an area of 2.58 lakh hectares with an yield of 2,470 kg/ ha. It had only 1,000 ha under cashew in 1961 and production of 700 tonnes. From this level, area had gone up to 1.55 lakh ha in 1991 and to 2.05 lakh ha in 2001 and 2.58 lakh ha 2003. The yield per hectare had also creased from 700 kg to 1,032 Kg, 1,431 and 2,470 respectively during this period, according to FAO statistics.

Vietnam tops global production with 6.37 lakh tonne followed by India (4.6 lakh tonne), Nigeria (1.86 lakh), Brazil (1.78 lakh) and Tanzania (1.23 lakh). At the same time, in area under the crop, Vietnam is at the fifth position with India topping with 7.3 lakh ha and others being Brazil 6.74 lakh ha., Nigeria 3.21 lakh ha, Indonesia 2.6 lakh ha.

Vietnam has become a major competitor for India in the world market with the industry there receiving active support from its Government, industry sources pointed out.

According to them, Vietnam had exported 60,000 tonnes of cashew kernels in 2002-03 and an estimated over one lakh tonne in 2003-04. "We can expect stiffer competition not only in cashew kernels exports, but also in raw cashew nut imports," they said. The prices of imported nuts have also increased in recent years while the unit value of exported cashew kernel had dropped substantially, they argued.

The stagnancy in raw cashew nut production in the country has been forcing the processing industry in India having a total installed capacity of 10 lakh tonnes to depend on imported raw nuts. "In spite of all efforts, the industry could not find adequate raw cashew nuts to meet its requirements in full, forcing many units to remain closed either round the year or for a considerable period of the year," they pointed out.

Given this scenario, the Government should take steps to reduce the industry's dependence on imported raw nuts, as it is creating not only a drain on the forex but also deprive many of regular employment, they pointed out.