As non-oil export commodities continue to gain attention, the National Cashew Association of Nigeria (NCAN) has announced the production of over 120,000 cashew seedlings for distribution to farmers as part of efforts to boost Nigeria’s cashew exports.
The NCAN National President, Dr. Ojo Ajanaku, said the seedlings are from the natural variety commonly known as the Ogbomosho or Oyo State variety, which is highly prized on the global market.
“This is a uniform variety farmers will be cultivating,” Ajanaku explained. “By the third year, it matures into a full-grown tree and starts fruiting — and this particular variety is globally sought after by processors and exporters due to its high value.”
He disclosed that NCAN is currently producing seedlings across seven states:
* Benue – 20,000
* Kogi – 20,000
* Edo – 40,000
* Kwara – 20,000
* Oyo – 30,000
* Enugu – 50,000
The association also received support from Beyond Farming Collective, which contributed 45,000 seedlings to the initiative.
“So far, we’ve produced 120,000 seedlings, and our target is 300,000,” he said.
Despite the scale of the project, Ajanaku noted that no external funding has been received. Instead, NCAN is financing the effort through its internal ticketing system, which collects small fees from members transporting cashew to processors or export points.
“We pooled those funds to support the nursery production. That way, we can give something tangible back to our farmers,” he said.
Looking ahead, Ajanaku expressed confidence in Nigeria’s potential to significantly scale up production.
“With determination, we can push our annual production to 2 million metric tonnes,” he stated. “That would drastically increase Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings, especially since cashew is predominantly for export and not widely consumed locally due to competition with groundnuts.”
He, however, appealed for government support, calling on agencies like the National Agricultural Development Fund (NADF), National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA), and National Agricultural Seed Council (NASC) to partner with NCAN in unlocking the sector’s full potential.
“We’ve written to them, hoping to present our plans and achievements, but no agency has responded so far,” he said. “We’re using this medium to urge them to give us a chance to show how they can assist us.”
Ajanaku also linked agricultural expansion to national security, noting:
“We have so much unused land — over 54 million hectares in Nigeria. If we convert our forests into farmlands, we’ll reduce criminal hideouts and create jobs. Cashew is a perfect crop to help us do that.”
