The Hindu Business Line : Cashew industry opposes KCDC, Rubber Board merger

THE Mangalore Cashew Manufacturers' Association (MCMA) has said that the cashew industry does not favour the recommendations to merge Karnataka Cashew Development Corporation (KCDC) with the Rubber Board.

A press release by the MCMA President, Mr Kalbavi Prakash Rao, said here on Monday that this would result in KCDC losing its identity and diluting its role.

"The need of the hour is to activate this body to take up aggressively intensive cultivation and also to rejuvenate the existing cashew plantations, and thus provide a role of a catalyst in increasing our State's raw cashew production to one lakh tonnes by 2015," he said.

Stating that raw cashew nut production in Karnataka is hardly 30 per cent of the industry's installed capacity, he said it is a major impediment to the growth of cashew industry in the State.

The State Government had established the KCDC with a view to increase raw cashew nut production. The corporation has taken up 26,000 hectares under cashew cultivation, he said. To increase productivity, KCDC should replace the senile trees with the high-yielding varieties.

Stating that KCDC should promote cashew cultivation in a much bigger scale, he said it should assist various non-governmental organisations currently helping the agriculturists.

It is in this context that the industry does not favour the recommendations of KCDC's merger with the Rubber Board, he said.

Mr Rao urged the State Government to provide plantation status to cashew crop so that the area under cultivation can be increased three-fold and the industry's target be met by 2015.