M. A. Awal and M. Monir Uddin
The present agriculture-friendly government has introduced various innovative agricultural technologies to make the country self-sufficient in food production and transform the agricultural sector into a more sustainable and commercial one. As a result of relentless efforts of the Ministry of Agriculture and institutions associated with agriculture, production of agricultural products is increasing rapidly in the country.
The Ministry of Agriculture has taken effective steps to cultivate unconventional and high-value crops in Bangladesh and one such potential, exportable and high value crop is Cashew nut. Cashew nut has great demand in the world market because of the abundance of protein, various essential vitamins and minerals as well as medicinal properties in it and the demand is increasing day by day.
Cashew nut is a tropical crop and its cultivation is limited to Asia and Africa. Hence, developed countries of the world depend on Asia and Africa for this nutritious agricultural product.
Cashew nuts currently have an international market value of about 14.9 billion dollars of which Vietnam alone exports 4 billion dollars worth of cashew nut. Vietnam produced 2.83 lakh tonnes of raw cashew nut in 2019. Vietnam now plans to export 10.5 billion dollars worth of Cashew by 2030. In the 1980s, the Vietnamese government encouraged landowners in some of the country's poorest districts to plant Cashew. By the 1990s, Cashew processing plants were established in Vietnam, and by 2013, Vietnam was supplying 25 percent of the international market demand. Today, Vietnam alone controls 9 billion of the world's 14.9 billion Cashew trade.
The Ministry of Agriculture has taken effective steps to cultivate
unconventional and high-value crops in Bangladesh and one such
potential, exportable and high value crop is Cashew nut. Cashew nut
has great demand in the world market because of the abundance
of protein, various essential vitamins and minerals as well
as medicinal properties in it
In 2019, the world produced a total of 39.71 lakh tons of raw Cashew, of which 39 per cent was produced by India and Ivory Coast. In 2020, Vietnam was the world's top exporter of Cashew and America was the top importer. African countries produce about 25 lakh tons raw Cashew a year but export 90 percent due to lack of processing facilities.
The domestic demand for Cashew is also increasing day by day in Bangladesh. In 2014-2015, only 18,000 kg of processed Cashew were imported in the country, which increased to 580,000 tons in 2018-2019. In 2019-2020, 6.5 lakh tons of Cashew were imported but Bangladesh is a potential fertile ground for Cashew production.
The three hill districts of Bandarban, Rangamati and Khagrachari in Bangladesh have a total area of 13,34,400 hectares of which only 5 per cent is plain crop land and the rest is hilly area. At least 22 per cent of the land in the three hilly districts is suitable for Cashew nut cultivation. Besides, the soil in other hilly areas of the country is also conducive to Cashew cultivation. If we can move forward with the right plan and strategy, we will not have to listen to the success story of Vietnam, rather, we as a country would be able to make our own success story in the near future.
In 1961-1962, the CHT Development Board and the Horticulture Development Department planted some Cashew saplings collecting from Africa along with other fruit saplings in the hilly areas. But due to lack of marketing and processing opportunities, many farmers cut down some trees. Later, the local wholesalers collected raw Cashew from the farmers and started exporting them to India and the local farmers became interested in cultivating Cashew nuts again.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, the production of raw Cashew in the country in 2018-2019 was 972 tons which increased to 1323 tons in 2019-2020. DAE has started a project worth Tk 147 crore to increase the production of Cashew. The Ministry of Agriculture is committed to export 1 billion worth of processed Cashew nut in the next few years. Recently, the Ministry of Agriculture has undertaken another project worth Tk 211 crore titled "Cashew Nut and Coffee Research, Development and Extension".
Currently there are few Cashew processing plants in the country. However, they are not enough for higher domestic production. In order to increase the production of Cashew nut in the country and earn foreign currency by exporting them as commercial agricultural products, it is important to consider a number of factors such as:
1. The production capacity of conventional Cashew in Bangladesh is very low comparing to other countries especially Vietnam and India. Shell Cashew cultivated in the hilly areas of our country are small in size (3-4 g) and shell cashews are found in 4-5 kg per tree. Jargram-2 is the highest yielding variety in West Bengal, India yields 12-14 kg of shell cashews per plant and the average weight per shell is 8-10 grams. Vietnam cultivates 5 high yielding Cashews, 4 of which yield much more than any other country. Names of these 4 varieties in Vietnam are SeedES04, SeedKP12, SeedKP11 and SeedBD01 whose shell cashew per plant is 45-65 kg. If arrangements are made to introduce these varieties from Vietnam, the production of Cashews will increase in the country at a significant rate.
2. Necessary steps should be taken to bring fallow lands in the hilly areas bordering Chittagong, Sylhet, Moulvibazar, Mymensingh, Sherpur, Panchagarh, Thakurgaon, Dinajpur as well as in the red soil areas of Narsingdi, Gazipur, Tangail and Narayanganj under cashew cultivation.
3. Although a lot of Cashews are produced in African countries, their processing industry is not up to the mark. In this situation, it is very easy to build a processing industry in our country as modern quality Cashew processing machinery is available in neighboring India. In this case, it is necessary to encourage the private sector to establish Cashew industry by providing technical assistance including necessary land settlement.
There is a huge opportunity not only for the cultivation of Cashew nuts in the country but also for the import of raw Cashew nuts from abroad. The experienced policy makers of the Ministry of Agriculture, departments concerned and research institutes are working relentlessly to increase agricultural production as well as commercialization of agriculture sector. It is very clear that Cashew nut will be an important export product of Bangladesh in near future. At the same time, this tremendous progress in agriculture will continue and will further enrich and accelerate the country's economy.
Dr. M. A. Awal is Member Director, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council, Farmgate, Dhaka. Dr. M. Monir Uddin is an Agronomist, Columnist and Development Worker.
