By Michael Dibie | Abuja
Cashew growers in Nigeria under the name National Cashew Association of Nigeria, (NCAN) have kicked against plans to prohibit the export of raw cashew nuts.
President of the National Cashew Association of Nigeria (NCAN) Dr Ojo Joseph Ajanaku, recently warned that such a policy could harm livelihoods and destabilise the sector, while calling on the federal government to instead provide targeted funding to support local processing.
He cautioned that such a move could undermine livelihoods and disrupt the industry and urged the Federal Government to prioritise targeted financing to strengthen local processing capacity.
Farmers in Nigeria have labeled the proposed bill before the National Assembly as “anti-human” and detrimental to national economic growth. Some say this has led to a sudden increase in prices and they cannot afford to buy especially this season, adding that it would affect their business negatively.
“Farmers are not happy but they don’t have a choice because government is controlling the system. I don’t want to argue with them but all I can say is that they should provide for the needs of farmers before implementing the policy,” said Mathew Oyegun, a Farmer.
A cashew dealer, Peter Augustine argued that efforts to introduce an export ban were being influenced by vested interests. He said that the main flow of cashew business in Nigeria is mostly in export, adding that most of the processing factories in the country are no longer functioning.
“What about people who have signed contract or have an existing contract? What of people with investment and their aim of getting the investment is through export? then you want to ban it,” he added.
According to Augustine, the ban would have a negative effect on farmers and dealers and threatens the livelihoods of over 5million farmers, adding that the industry is dominated by small scale farmers cultivating less than one hectare.
“What are the palliatives, what has the government put in place to cushion the effects? So the statement alone has sent a negative effect on cashew farmers, by this time, we would have had a lot of cashew, farmers selling and business moving smoothly,” he said.
Augustine also noted that the issue of insecurity, inflation is responsible for decrease in production in the country. “Cost of production has increased and affects the sector, a lot of people have been set off the business, also climate change has affected the business, drought and lodging affects the business and discourages farmers”.
Experts argued that efforts to introduce an export ban were being influenced by vested interests and risk undoing progress recorded in the sector, particularly for smallholder farmers who dominate production across the country.
Nigeria, once among the world’s leading cashew producers with annual output estimated at 700,000 metric tonnes, now produces between 350,000 and 400,000 metric tonnes.
