Stop wastage of cashew apple, rejuvenate senile plantations:CEPC

Panaji, Mar 11 (UNI) The Cashew Export Promotion Council (CEPC) will soon embark on a campaign to educate the farmers to make by-products out of 4.38 million tonnes of cashew apple, which is being dumped as waste in the country anually.

''Only 20,000 tonnes of the cashew apple is being utilised and most of it in Goa, in preparing juice and feni liquor, whereas the remaining 4.38 million tonnes of the fruit is treated as a colossal waste amounting to Rs 400 crore loss,'' according to CEPC Chairman Walter De Souza, who was addressing a farmers' gathering at 'Cashew Mahotsav - 2006' here today.

Mr De Souza said farmers could benefit and earn a lot more by converting the cashew apple into by-products like chutneys, cakes, halva and other eatables, which have a good market.

The Cashew Research and Development wing at Trissur under the Kerala Agriculture University, he said, was planning to hold demonstrations to train people to prepare by-products from cashew apple.

He also said the cashew producing states should run model farms to demonstrate production of at least 2,500 kg of cashew kernels per hectare as against the current average yield of 700 kg in the country, which is quite low compared to other countries.

India, he said, produces around 550,000 tonnes of cashew nuts as against 1.4 million tonne of its processing capacity, thus forcing the industry to import 550,000 nuts from various countries.

At the same time, the Indian raw nuts yield 60 to 80 per cent price higher than that of other countries. It was Rs 22 per kg in Brazil as against Rs 30 to Rs 40 in India and still higher in Goa for quality of nuts.

Calling for a movement to boost productivity and rejuvenating the senile plantations in a big way, Mr De Souza urged the farming community and cooperative societies to undertake contract farming under private-public partnership mode and to make use of various subsidies under the National Horticultural Mission.

Regarding, the same, he cited efforts of the Forest Development Corporation in Goa on 9,000 hectares which is working towards boosting the yield and rejuvenating plantations using self-help groups. At present, he said, the yeild is a mere 250 kg per hectare.

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