Karnataka seeks Centre's nod for cashewnut project

The Karnataka horticulture department has embarked on a massive expansion of cashewnut cultivation in the state. The state has prepared a Rs 15 crore project titled "Integrated development of cashew in Karnataka" and sent it to the National Horticulture Mission (NHM) under the Union ministry of agriculture for approval.

According to Jayaram, joint director, horticulture department, the approval from NHM is expected shortly. Under the programme, each year Rs 5 crore will be spent on procuring cashewnut grafts and distributed to farmers.

The department proposes to produce cashewnut tree grafts and distribute it to the farmers free of cost. Till now, it has distributed 10 lakh grafts in the state. The districts that will be focussed on, for increasing the cultivation are Kolar, Bidar, Belgaum, Tumkur and Davanagere.

Additional area will also be brought under the cultivation in the existing cashewnut growing areas such as Udupi, Dakshina Kannada and Uttara Kannada, he said.

Talking to Business Standard, Jayaram said the horticulture department has identified about 35 varieties suited for cultivation in different geographical regions in the state.

The varieties indentified for cultivation are: Ullal 1, Chintamani, Dhana for plantation in Kolar district. For the coastal areas, it has identified Vengurla 2, Vengurla 4 and Vengurla 7, Selection 1 & 2.

"In the olden days only cashewnut seedlings were used for cultivation, which normally yielded two to three kg nut per tree. Whereas, the grafts being distributed by the department will yield up to 15 kg per tree," Jayaram said.

The department has also asked the existing growers to replace the old plants with high yielding varieties to achieve up to three-fold increase in the yield. "We have also recommended the growers to plant only 156 plants per hectare as against the traditional pattern of 225 plants per hectare. This, would help the trees grow bigger thereby increasing the yield," said Jayram.

Apart from distributing cashew grafts to farmers, the horticulture department will also provide them with other inputs like fertiliser and water conservation know-how. They will also be given 50 per cent subsidy to install drip irrigation system.

The department has also sought technical help from the Puttur-based National Research Centre for Cashew (NRCC), the directorate of cashew & cocoa, the government of India and various non-governmental organisations to achieve the target.

The total cashewnut production will be increased to over one lakh metric tonne. This will help the processing industry in the state to reduce its dependance on imports.

While industry requirement is about one lakh metric tonne, the supply is only about 45,000 tonne. The rest is met through imports from African countries. The African nuts are usually immature and fungus infested, thereby making it difficult for the processors to achieve high quality.

The department aims to encourage at least 45,000 farmers to take up cashewnut plantation in the state. "Our aim is to make the state, the number one producer of cashewnut in the country by 2010," he said.

The project envisages the increase in the area under cashewnut cultivation from the present 78,000 hectare to 1.08 lakh hectare over the next three years.