Poor post-harvest management of raw cashew nuts by farmers such as improper drying of the nuts is said to be compromising the quality of the commodity, such as resulting in high moisture content.
The situation is accounting for low grading of Ghana’s cashew nuts on the international market with corresponding low price as compared with cashew from other producing countries.
A Value Chain officer of the Tree Crops Development Authority, Dwobeng Nyantakyi, disclosed this development during a stakeholders meeting held at Sunyani in the Bono Region. The stakeholders’ engagement was to enable cashew farmers to share their grievances for possible redress by authorities. It was organized by Cashew Watch Ghana, a civil society group.
Throwing more light on activities of the Tree Crops Development Authority (TCDA), Mr. Nyantakyi said about 1,600 aggregators and exporters have been registered and licensed by his outfit to buy and export cashew from the shores of the country.
“The aggregators and farmers have also been trained on how to ensure cashew quality, including proper drying of the nuts but improper drying of raw cashew nuts still persists, thus the falling grading of Ghana’s cashew on the international market.”
He also advised cashew farmers to show interest in quality planting materials such as seeds by sourcing inputs from approved outlets to guarantee high yields and income.
The 2022 Bono Regional Best Cashew Farmer, Bertha Tiwaa, suggested that the government through the TCDA should buy cashew and sell on behalf of farmers as pertain in the cocoa sector, indicating that “this would help regulate the cashew price and prevent farmers from being exploited by middlemen.”
Madam Tiwaa also called for the establishment of taskforces across production areas to prevent aggregators from buying raw cashew nuts at farm gates, adding “the TCDA must sanction any buyer that flouts the law in order to bring sanity into the cashew sector.”
The National Coordinator of Cashew Watch Ghana, Raphael Godlove Ahenu
urged the government to give utmost attention to the cashew sector by ensuring fair pricing regime, build capacity of farmers through technology to increase productivity. This he noted, will help Ghana optimize benefits from the commodity.
