Emphasis on cashew cultivation

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As part of its efforts to revive the traditional sector, the State Government has set a target of additional 7,000 hectares of cashew cultivation for the next financial year.

As part of this initiative, the Government will distribute 20 lakh grafted cashew plants across the State.

"Our country needs almost 12 lakh metric tonnes of cashew per year of which just 58,000 MT is produced by the State. This is a steep decline from our earlier figure when we used to contribute up to 1.5 lakh MT," Labour Minister P K Gurudasan said here on Friday while explaining the further initiatives of the State in cashew cultivation.

The Minister added that though the expertise for cashew processing industry was top class in the State, the scarcity of raw materials was a threat to the industry. It is in the wake of this that the State has decided to expand the area under the cultivation of cashew plantations, he said. Though most of the high quality cashew plantations are in Kannur and Kasargod districts, the Government is targeting other districts as part of its expansion policy, the Minister said. The high-yielding graft plants will be distributed to farmers free of cost from farms under the Agriculture Department, Aaralam Farm, Agriculture University research stations etc.

The Government also plans to procure cashew apple in order to produce bio-diesel. The farmers have been asked to dry the cashew apple and store it so that it could be procured by the Government at appropriate time to be used as raw material for producing bio-diesel.

The cashew apple is also a source of ethanol, but the State will have to amend the Abkari Act for producing ethanol from cashew apple, the Minister said.