The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is to plant three million seedlings of improved cashew every year for the next four years.
The minister of agriculture and rural development, Chief Audu Ogbe revealed this during the flag off of the 2016 Cashew Festival and National Cashew Season in Ilorin,Kwara state. A director in the ministry, Mr Titus Efuntoye, Ogbe said this forms part of efforts to boost production of cashew as a foreign exchange earner for the country.
Ogbe said about 30,000 hectares of land in cashew producing states would be covered.
“Farmers would be supported in rejuvenating their old cashew plantations by replacing the old plants with the improved varieties.”
The Kwara state governor, Alh Abdulfatah Ahmed said if farmers had access to affordable credit, problems associated with the transformation of agriculture into viable agribusiness would be overcome in the country.
