Director urges farmers to embark on large scale cultivation of cashew

Director, Edo Office of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, FMARD, Mr. Wellington Omoragbon has urged Nigerian farmers to embark on large scale cultivation of cashew.
Omoragbon gave the advice in Benin; saying, aside from being a tree crop of considerable economic importance to the citizenry, cashew trees are useful for the protection of watersheds and dams.
“Apart from being a source of useful product and by-product for food and industrial applications, cashew also gives a useful shade and also suitable for the control of soil erosion’’, he said.
The director disclosed that cashew was among the recent value chain crops added to the ones being operated in Edo by the Federal Government.
Omoragbon said that 328 farmers benefited from free 338 kilogrammes of cashew seeds and 656 bags of fertiliser for the planting season at subsidised rates in 2014.
According to the director, cashew is an important industrial and export crop whose potential is yet to be fully exploited by Nigerian farmers.