Resource information
India has a maximum area (21.6%) under cashew nut and is the third largest producer (17.3%) of raw nuts in the world. The country is the second largest exporter, accounting for 34% of the world’s export of cashew kernels having a comparative advantage in production and processing on account of its cheap and skilled labour force. The yields in India are poor at 860 kg/ha as compared to 4,125 kg/ha in Vietnam and 2,000 kg/ha in Nigeria. There is an urgent need to expand and fully utilize the potential if India has to keep pace with growing global demand, retain market share and stay ahead of the rapidly emerging competition in the world market. The industry employs over three lakh persons with more than 95% of them being women in India. It earned a foreign exchange of Rs. 22,889 million, but the gap between actual production of raw nuts and demand by the processing industries has made India to resort to imports of raw cashew warranting a policy change to encourage more local production and thereby preventing the outflow of valuable foreign exchange. The present paper deals with impact of climate change in cashew production, influence of various weather parameters on flowering and yield, carbon sequestration potential of cashew nut to mitigate climate change under different land use systems and a methodology for calculation of tradable carbon credits with a holistic approach to withstand competition from global players. The paper also deals with production practices in vogue and the improved practices for higher production and productivity, processing and marketing and export competitiveness from the Indian subcontinent.
