Cashew is one of Goa’s most important horticultural crops. The crop is grown over 55000 hectares. It is only recently that cashew growing in Goa has come into the limelight as a cash crop. Though cultivation of cashew in Goa can be traced back to the Portuguese, for many years the crop was not grown commercially. Originally, a local variety of cashew was grown in Goa and the use of high yielding varieties of the crop was unknown to local farmers.
The local variety of cashew used to give an average yield of 1.5 kg per tree, while a high yielding variety could have easily produced 12 to 15kg per tree. In order to boost crop yield, Zuari undertook a familiarization program for high yielding cashew varieties amongst farmers. This helped spread awareness about the various types of grafts of cashew that were available for commercial cultivation.
Zuari even procured 3000 high yield cashew grafts including the Vengurla-1 and Vengurla-4 from research stations in neighbouring states, distributing them to progressive farmers at subsidized rates. This was because cashew yields in neighbouring states were three times higher.
After the pioneering steps that Zuari undertook to promote the use of cashew grafts, the Directorate of Agriculture established a special scheme for cashew area expansion. This lead to the use of cashew grafts becoming a common feature amongst farmers in Goa.
Recently the Indian Council of Agricultural Research at Old Goa identified some elite local selections of cashew, which have potential for high yield raw nuts as well as apples. These apples are useful for the distillation of liquor and fetch a high price.
Zuari has established a demonstration of these elite trees at the Zuarinagar estate. Farmers can see first hand, the performance at the site and can adopt these varieties in their farm.