Aburi (E/R), May 28, - Ghana’s cashew sector is now the leading
agricultural non-traditional export, with a total amount of $197 million worth
of export revenue in 2016, representing 53 per cent of the total revenue of
$371 million.
The sector, with an estimated
production area of about 89,000 hectares, had created about 40,000 jobs in the
production and 1,800 jobs in processing, which would help attain the district
level industrialisation drive and diversify exports for more revenue.
Mr Kennedy Osei Nyarko, the
Deputy Minister in charge of Perennial Crop, Ministry of Food and Agriculture,
announced this in Aburi at the first session of the sixth edition of a five-day
Master Training Programme for experts along the value chain to promote the
competitiveness of African cashew in the Eastern Region.
The programme is jointly
organised by Competitive Cashew Initiative and the African Cashew Alliance
(ACA), in collaboration with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the Cocoa
Research Institute of Ghana, with support from Gesellschaft für Internationale
Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).
It brought together 83 African
cashew experts from nine countries: Ghana, Benin, Sierra Leone, Cameroon,
Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Guinea Bissau and Mozambique to discuss
how to build national and regional network for future collaboration.
The programme aims at increasing
theoretical knowledge and skills of African cashew experts along the value
chain and promotes the competitiveness of the crop.
Mr Nyarko said government was
working on the establishment of more nurseries to ensure the availability of
good planting materials to cashew farmers to increase production and encourage
local processing.
He said the Ministry was
committed to supporting the cashew industry with improved planting materials to
revive the sector.
“Through the Ministry, about 13
metric tonnes of polyclonal cashew seeds have been shared with Sierra Leone and
Togo to strengthen the sector and make it competitive in the global market,” he
said.
He said government was putting in
place measures to increase production of cashew and encouraged local processing
to ensure that the country reaped the maximum benefits.
Mr Nyarko said government had
identified areas that were vulnerable to the effect of climate change and
develop sustainable strategies for its mitigation.
“As a result the European Union
Regulation for Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of
Chemicals project for the Upper West Region and surrounding districts targets
climate change mitigation and adoption through cashew cultivation,” he
said.
He urged the participants to
network and share ideas on best practices and impart the knowledge and skills
acquired to contribute to making the African cashew industry sustainable and competitive.
Mrs Marian Lamptey, the Head of
Corporate Services, African Cashew Alliance, said Africa was now the largest
producer of raw cashew nuts, accounting for more than half of the world’s
production, and that processing remained a challenge with less than 10 per cent
level.
She said an increase of 25 per
cent in value-added cashew products would have a great impact on poverty
reduction, generating over $100 million in household income for rural families.
She said participants would be
introduced to monitoring and evaluation, gender and cashew value chain
promotion, and at each session, “there is a combination of topics on
self-reflection and perception management and on behaviours and values that
affect learning and teaching skills”.
Mrs Lamptey said during knowledge
sharing sessions of theories and their application, participants would learn
about all aspects of the cashew value chain from production and processing of
raw cashew nuts, to economics, cashew market dynamics, marketing and financing
mechanisms.
On return to their host
institutions, the participants would have a multiplier effect on the cashew
industry when sharing their knowledge and experiences gained from the training
programme, she said.
Participants would have a field
visit to the research station of the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana among
other cashew production areas for practical experience.
Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, the Minister
of General Education, said the cashew industry was working with the Council for
Technical and Vocational Education and Training to build capacity and learn
best practices to improve the sector for the betterment of Africa.
He called for better pension
schemes for farmers to improve on their livelihood to attract the youth to
venture into farming.
GNA
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