Small-scale Farmers Benefit from Cashew Nut production

Cashew is one of the most popular tree nuts on the local and world markets because of its competitiveprice, long shelf life, relatively low fat content and excellent flavour. The global market for nuts is projected to grow at an annual rate of at least 5% over the next five years. The main reason is that nutsare regarded as a healthy source of protein and are being consumed in increasing quantities in bothdeveloped and developing countries. A market survey carried out by KHDP in 2005 also showed thatthe local and regional demand for Kenyancashew is growing at an even faster rate. Thisprovides a great income opportunity for manythousands of farming families on the Coast, whohave cashew trees growing on their small farms.

However, despite the strong market demand, total production of raw nuts in 2002 was reportedby the MOA and buyers to be less than 10,000MTs - well below demand from local processorsand raw nut exporters, estimated to be a minimum of 35,000 MTs. Consequently, the Cashew Technical Committee was formed bypublic and private sector agencies involved in thesector, to promote production, processing andmarketing of cashew. It is chaired by the KenyanAgricultural Research Institute’s coastal fieldstation on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture,with representatives from the Coast Development

Authority (CDA), growers, input supply companies,nut buyers and NGOs. In 2003, KHDP joined the committee and provided technical assistance andfunding to implement the Cashew Productivity Enhancement Program.

The 100kg cashew tree in Lamu District

The Njoroge family with their bumper crop

of cashew

The objective of this initiative is to raise the incomes of smallholders by increasing cashewyields and improving raw nut quality. More than 100MOA extension workers and 5,000 cashew farmers have been trained in tree management and diseasecontrol since the program started. KARI researchstaff estimate that average yields have increasedby at least 3kgs per tree, with some growersobtaining yields of more than 50kgs – ten times theaverage. Improved production practices couldresult in doubling of current domestic production(and a doubling of farmers’ incomes) over the nexttwo years.

KHDP is a USAID-funded program, implemented by Fintrac Inc

A direct beneficiary of the program is Mrs Amania Wangui Njoroge and her family of Bahari Location inLamu District. They have 160 cashew trees which Mrs Njoroge manages, with help from her husbandon pruning and from the whole family on picking and weeding. They are members of the Tewe FarmersField School, one of 215 groups which are receiving technical assistance from the KHDP program. In2004 Mrs Njoroge harvested 3,200kgs of raw nuts which she sold at an average price of 45/- per kilo, giving a gross income of Ksh144,000. In 2005, after training and technical advice on pruning and spraying for powdery mildew disease control they sold 6,385 kgs of raw nuts. Even though the average price dropped to Ksh33/- per kilo, the gross income increased to Ksh210,000. Costs of spraying wereKsh1,600/- giving a net increased income of Ksh64,400/- ($882). In addition they have started to grow improved varieties of sweet potato introduced by the TA team, and intend to plant ABE chilli as a cash crop in 2006. Mrs Njoroge is growing seedlings from her best yielding trees to plant 50 more trees inthe next rainy season and to sell the surplus to other growers. She has paid Ksh5,000 land tax from her cashew earnings, and is also buying iron sheets for the construction of a new house. The Njorogefamily is just one example from more than 5,000 farm families deriving increased income as a directresult of the USAID/KHDP initiative.

KHDP is a USAID-funded program, implemented by Fintrac Inc

HDC is a USAID-funded program, implemented by Fintrac Inc.

The KHDP Cashew Program:Raising Productivity through Collaboration

Global demand for nuts — specifically cashews and macadamias — continues to rise. However, Kenya is a relativelysmall player in the global market, contributing just .05 percent. Although Kenya’s cashew industry has faced aging trees,powdery mildew disease, poor agronomic practices, uncompetitive prices, inadequate planting material and a lack oforganized marketing, things are slowly beginning to change. Various industry-wide initiatives are underway torehabilitate Kenya’s cashew sector with improved productivity, processing and marketing. In addition, the NationalCashew Technical Committee has been revived with support from the Horticulture Development Centre. The committeecomprises representatives from the MOA, KARI, Bayer East Africa, Chamber of Commerce, Coast DevelopmentAuthority (CDA), Action Aid Kenya, Coast NGOs Forum, TechnoServe, DED, Kenya Nut Company, MillenniumManagement and the Kenya Cashew Nut Processors and Exporters’ Association. Plans to form a cashew growers’association are moving along rapidly.

Cashew productivity training in Mombasa

USAID-Mission Director, Dr. Kiert Toh planting

Cashew tree in Kilifi

Cashew Production

Through USAID assistance, the Kenya Horticulture DevelopmentProgram/Horticulture Development Centre (HDC) initiated itscollaborative cashew productivity program in Kenya’s coastal region. Inresponse to the farmers’ productivity challenges, HDC developed aCashew IPM Protocol that can be tailored to train farmers how to cost-effectively raise productivity through better agronomic practices such aspruning and biological control of pests and disease. Seeking to utilizepractices made in the Cashew IPM Protocol, HDC is supporting theNational Cashew Technical Committee through the MOA and KARIMtwapa to implement the Coast Province Cashew ProductivityEnhancement Program. Recognizing the significant role of frontlineextension officers, 90 to date have been given IPM protocol manuals,training in IPM and other cashew production practices.

HDC’s target is to increase production in 2007 by at least 5,000 MTsfrom a baseline of 8,620 MTs in 2003. The NIS value in 2003 was Kshs40 per kg and is currently at Kshs 65 per kg. Already, farmers haveincreased yield from 3.5 kg per tree in 2003 to 6 kg per tree in May 2005.With 20 trees each, farmers brought in Kshs 2,800 (US$37) in 2003 andcurrently make Kshs 7,800 (US$103). This increases the averageincome of the program’s 4,325 farmers by almost 300 percent. To date,the program has increased income from Kshs 12.1 million (US$160,025)to Kshs 33.7 million (US$445,475).

HDC is a USAID-funded program, implemented by Fintrac Inc.

The activities in this collaborative extension program include:

Field-based training of 5,000 farmers by extension officers through HDC support. Each extension officer has heldfield-training days for farmers in the areas of nursery establishment, orchard establishment, orchard management,buyer linkages and cashew IPM strategy. More training is planned and they have also established and maintainone to two small cashew demonstration plots and are collecting baseline and follow up data as required.

Providing specialized equipment for frontline extension workers (pH meters, moisture meters and pruning saws).

Supporting KARI Mtwapa in maintaining a central demonstration and propagation plot, maintaining a central demoplot at KARI, enabling KARI to continue dissemination of improved planting material and providing KARI with twocomputers, a digital camera and a GPS unit.

Organizing organic certification programs.

Cashew from Kwale District on sale in Mombasa

Cashew processing

To support Kenya’s small processors, HDC is also collaboratingwith the Coast Development Authority and over 40 women’sgroups representing 800 entrepreneurs.

The program improves capacity through training in micro-processing, entrepreneurship, group mobili-zation andmarketing. This leads to enhanced quality and aims to raise theproportion of graded whole nuts to 90 percent — the optimumglobal rate — resulting in higher incomes.

Additionally, through the Cashew Technical Committee’sextension program, processors have been encouraged toinitiate their own extension programs and are hiring field staff toassist farmers in raising the quality of cashews.

In June, HDC participated in the first meeting of the AfricanCashew Alliance in Baltimore, Md., by sponsoring theattendance of James Wachira of the Kenya Nut Company. Atthat meeting, donors and processors pledged to increase thequantity of locally processed nuts and to reduce the exports ofraw nuts.

In another development aimed at supporting growth in Kenya’scashew industry, the Kenya Cashew Nut Processors andExporters’ Association agreed on a levy that will providetechnical assistance to farmers on a consistent basis.

About KHDP/HDCThe Kenya Horticultural Development Centre

(KHDP), a USAID-funded project managed by

Fintrac Inc., under the Horticultural Development

Centre (HDC) supports smallholder growers in

production, post-harvest handling and marketing of

high-value horticulture.

Cashews are an excellent crop for increasingsmallholder income and providing employment inprocessing and exporting. Global demand forcashews is strong and processing capacity alreadyexists within the country to absorb roughly 30,000tons — three times production in 2003. HDC hasdeveloped an IPM strategy to fight powdery mildewand other biological diseases and is working withKARI to train frontline extension workers.

Success StoryPublic-Private Alliance Increases Yields & Incomes for Thousands of Cashew Farmers in Coast Province

Kenyan cashew nut farmers in Coast Province arereporting dramatic increases in yields as a result of an initiative spearheaded by the USAID-funded KenyaHorticulture Development Program (USAID-KDHP) andinvolving more than a dozen private and public sectorpartners ranging from government research andextension services, to input suppliers, processors, andexporters.

USAID-KHDP began its Coast Province Cashew Productivity Enhancement Program in 2004. While cashew had been an important source of income for smallholders in the region, yields had declined due to poor production practices and failure to control powderymildew. The average yield had fallen to less than 5kilograms per tree based on weight of nuts in shell (NIS),whereas a well-managed tree can produce 10-20kilograms NIS. Domestic production was supplying lessthan 30 percent of potential demand from exporters and processors.

With few other income options in cashew productionareas, cashew growers were experiencing recurrent foodsecurity problems. The quickest way to increaseincomes for cashew farmers and relieve these foodsecurity problems was to increase cashew treeproductivity.

The scale of the problem and the scope of the programrequired to reach thousands of small farmers in oftenremote areas were beyond the capabilities of one projector program. Therefore, USAID-KHDP formed an alliance with the Cashew Technical Committee, comprising over a dozen public and private sector entities involved in Kenya’s cashew sector. Led by the Kenya AgriculturalResearch Institute’s (KARI) field station in Mtwapa, members include USAID-KHDP, the Ministry of Agriculture, Bayer, the Chamber of Commerce, theCoast Development Authority, Action Aid Kenya, Coast NGOs Forum, TechnoServe, Kenya Nut Company,Millennium Management and other processors.

Photos by Fintrac Inc.

Ali Ka Pombe, a farmer in Kenya’s Coast Provincereceived help fighting powdery mildew disease and his trees are flourishing.

Under the first phase of the program, 120 extension staffreceived training and technical materials coveringpruning, pest and disease control, integrated pestmanagement (IPM) techniques, and a wide-variety of other improved cashew production and postharvestpractices.

In turn, these extension agents have provided on-farmtraining and extension services to more than 5,000 growersthroughout Coast Province. The program has alsoproduced extension materials, provided specialized handpruning equipment for use by tree management teams, andcost-shared the establishment and maintenance of a central cashew demonstration plot and nursery at the KARI-Mtwapa research station.

First phase results were very encouraging. Average yieldsper tree have increased from 3.5 kilograms to 5 kilograms,with some farmers reporting individual trees producingmore than 50 kilograms in 2006.

Ali Ka Pombe, a cashew farmer in Coast Province,watched his yields collapse with the spread of powderymildew disease. After employing USAID-KHDP’sregimen of pruning, weeding and spraying techniques,his ten trees are healthy and he expects his yields toreach 40 kilograms per tree.

“Cashews grow well at the Coast, but disease made it hard and now I have an incentive to plant more,” Pombesaid.

Technical analysis by KARI, Real IPM, Bayer andUSAID-KHDP of the work carried out during the cashewprogram during 2005-06 shows that regular weeding andmulching around potentially high-yielding trees followedby pruning and timely application of fungicide to controlpowdery mildew, are essential to optimize yields. Mostgrowers, however, have neither the capital necessary tobuy the equipment and inputs necessary to prune andspray their trees, nor the specialized skills to do the workefficiently. To solve these problems, a second phase ofthe KHDP program was funded and implemented in late2006.

BEFORE Powdery mildew disease, when left uncontrolled, decimates the cashew flowers that yield the fruit.

AFTER USAID has trained thousands of small Kenyanfarmers to fight the disease and cashew production isblossoming. USAID continues to train thousands more farmersin proper pruning, mulching and spraying techniques.

Phase II is focusing on establishing an integratedproduction, credit and marketing system for cashewgrowers. Farmer groups are receiving intensive technicalassistance to manage at least 1,000 trees each, withpruning and spraying services provided by three-person"tree management teams" (TMTs) selected by eachgroup from its members and trained by Bayer (EastAfrica), KARI and USAID-KHDP. Growers are paying for the pruning and spraying service, with the cost financedby K-Rep Bank who recovers the principal and intereston the loans directly from processing companies that have marketing contracts with each group.

At least 80 farmer groups (1,600 growers) are also beingtrained in farming as a business, including credit andloan management. Program partners K-Rep Bank,processing companies and TechnoServe are providingspecialized staff to train all target groups in businessmanagement including the terms and conditions of their credit facilities and marketing agreements.

An additional 50-60 Ministry of Agriculture and privatesector extension providers are receiving morespecialized training in cashew production necessary tosupport at least another 80-100 target farmer groups.

In order to ensure good recordkeeping, part of the feepaid by each grower to the grower group is covering thecost of a clerk who records all transactions carried outon a group basis, and implements a traceability systemin relation to trees sprayed, nuts harvested, and nuts

sold. This group recordkeeping function also forms thebackbone of the program’s monitoring and evaluationsystem.

By August 2007, with the completion of Phase II, more than 5,000 farmers will have been trained in improved cashewproduction techniques. Average yields are expected tomore than double (to 10-20 kilograms per tree). Most importantly, the program will leave in place a financiallysustainable extension system delivered through variousprivate-sector partnerships (input suppliers, processors,banks), with expanded credit access for small growers from private banks and other lending agencies.

Kenya Horticulture Development Program KHDP is working in Central, Coast, Eastern, Nyanza, Rift Valley and Western provinces to increase incomes through smallholder production and employment in the horticulture industry. The program is working with more than 15,000members of 500 smallholder groups in conjunction with 52 private and public-sector alliance partners.

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Small-scale Farmers Benefit from Cashew Nut production

w is one of the most popular tree nuts on the local and world markets because of its competitive long shelf life, relatively low fat content and excellent flavour. The global market for nuts is ted to grow at an annual rate of at least 5% over the next five years. The main reason is that nuts garded as a healthy source of protein and are being consumed in increasing quantities in both ped and developing countries. A market survey carried out by KHDP in 2005 also showed that cal and regional demand for Kenyan

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Authority (CDA), growers, input supply companies, nut buyers and NGOs. In 2003, KHDP joined the committee and provided technical assistance and funding to implement the Cashew Productivity Enhancement Program.

The 100kg cashew tree in Lamu District

Njoroge family with their bumper crop of cashew

The objective of this initiative is to raise the incomes of smallholders by increasing cashew yields and improving raw nut quality. More than 100 MOA extension workers and 5,000 cashew farmers have been trained in tree management and disease control since the program started. KARI research staff estimate that average yields have increased by at least 3kgs per tree, with some growers obtaining yields of more than 50kgs – ten times the average. Improved production practices could result in doubling of current domestic production (and a doubling of farmers’ incomes) over the next two years.

is a USAID-funded program, implemented by Fintrac Inc

A direct beneficiary of the program is Mrs Amania Wangui Njoroge and her family of Bahari Location in Lamu District. They have 160 cashew trees which Mrs Njoroge manages, with help from her husband on pruning and from the whole family on picking and weeding. They are members of the Tewe Farmers Field School, one of 215 groups which are receiving technical assistance from the KHDP program. In 2004 Mrs Njoroge harvested 3,200kgs of raw nuts which she sold at an average price of 45/- per kilo, giving a gross income of Ksh144,000. In 2005, after training and technical advice on pruning and spraying for powdery mildew disease control they sold 6,385 kgs of raw nuts. Even though the average price dropped to Ksh33/- per kilo, the gross income increased to Ksh210,000. Costs of spraying were Ksh1,600/- giving a net increased income of Ksh64,400/- ($882). In addition they have started to grow improved varieties of sweet potato introduced by the TA team, and intend to plant ABE chilli as a cash crop in 2006. Mrs Njoroge is growing seedlings from her best yielding trees to plant 50 more trees in the next rainy season and to sell the surplus to other growers. She has paid Ksh5,000 land tax from her cashew earnings, and is also buying iron sheets for the construction of a new house. The Njoroge family is just one example from more than 5,000 farm families deriving increased income as a direct result of the USAID/KHDP initiative.

KHDP is a USAID-funded program, implemented by Fintrac Inc