ISHS Acta Horticulturae 108: International Cashew Symposium
CASHEW DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME IN INDIA |
| Author: | T.M. VENKATARAMAN |
| Abstract:
Four centuries ago Portuguese settlers brought with them cashewnuts and planted mainly for purpose of checking soil erosion. The cashew crop spread to the Malabar and Konkan coast of India, later over the Coromandal coast and other parts. In the early stages it was the apple which was considered valuable because of its obvious attraction. India had to wait for three centuries to realise the value of the kernel inside the nut. Until the end of the second world war, exports were small indeed. But after the dawn of independence in 1947 the exports mounted up very rapidly. There was year to year progress in this direction and in 1949–50 the export stood at 19,277 tons valued at Rs. 56 millions and by 1974–75 it reached the peak figure of 65,025 tons value at Rs. 1181 millions. India had been till recently making use of the rawnuts available in East African countries for two reasons: (1) those countries had no use for them otherwise than for export to India by which they were earning sizeable income: (2) fruiting and harvesting season in those countries which lie on the south of the equator are during the period August - October against February - April in India. This phenomenon enabled our country to collect the raw material so that they could work the factories spread over a longer period in the year. As the labour in the East African countries could not successfully carry out the processing operations which have been till recently entirely manual, the export of rawnuts by them to India was by itself a profitable business for them as otherwise they were lying unutilized and wasted. The situation has since changed as every country has to make the best use of its raw materials for its own benefit. India has been very well aware of this feature in international trade, having itself been subjected to exploitation as a colonial country by the Imperial power for too long. Rightly therefore, India had projected cashew development programmes for increasing the out put of the raw material within its own sources. | |
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