(Business in Cameroon) - Last Thursday (August 17), the Institute of Agricultural Research for Development (IRAD) distributed 25,000 cashew seedlings to 35 cooperatives in the Touboro district of northern Cameroon. The operation is a spin-off from the special funding the Head of State provided the IRAD (in 2018) to boost the large-scale production of cashew seedlings for the promotion and development of the cashew sector in Cameroon. 

Cashew was introduced in Cameroon in the 1970s (at the same time as in Côte d'Ivoire, now the world's leading cashew producer) as part of a government program to combat desertification. However,  this cash crop adapted to hot zones is still little known in the country. Cameroon intends to develop the sector in view of the opportunities it offers. The aim is to supplement it with cotton, which has until now been the sole cash crop in the country's northern regions (North, Far North, Adamaoua).

To this end, in 2018, with the support of German cooperation, Cameroon adopted a national strategy for the development of the cashew nut value chain. With that strategy, the ambition was to appear on the world cashew market by 2023, create "150,000 jobs in the three northern regions of Cameroon and the East in 5 years", and create 1,000 jobs in the cashew nut processing sector (shelling, cashew juice production.... ) over the same period.

According to this strategy, which has so far been slow to produce the expected results, all these objectives will only be achieved through the development of 150,000 hectares of cashew plantation in Cameroon. With this in mind, since 2018, thanks to the aforementioned special funding, the IRAD has been running a project to produce 10 million cashew seedlings, which are gradually being distributed to farmers. According to experts, this quantity of planting material is likely to catalyze the creation of 100,000 hectares of plantations in Cameroon.

BRM