U/E/R: Agric Director share reasons farmers distance themselves from cashew plantation

The Upper East Regional Director of Agriculture, Mr. Francis Ennor has revealed why cashew cannot do well in the region.

He said the high weather temperature witnessed in the Region has a huge impact on the quality of the cashew nut.

The Regional Agric Director made the revelation in an exclusive Interview with this reporter on Thursday, September 1, 2022.

He stated, “So, if you looked at it, is not very good in the Upper East unlike the southern sector when they harvest, the temperature is not so high on the nut.”

The Regional Director added that there is an oil content in the cashew nut. According to him, when the temperature heats up, it affects the nut quality and eventually drives away buyers.

“For the buyers, before they come to buy, they have to do a cutting test and look at the quality before they can price it. If you have a very good quality that is big and good then, it attracts a premium price. So, if the nut is not good, they might reject it or buy it at a very low price," he stated.

Mr. Ennor also cited the short rainy period in the region as another factor farmers do not want to risk venturing into cashew plantations.

"In Upper East Region, we expect the rain to come around May, then in June, we can even plant. But here is the case for the past two years, in June we expected the rain to come, but it didn’t come, it goes into July and July too as we experienced this year, it was totally dry. So, imagine if we had planted cashew seedlings very young like that of Mango or any of these crops, it will die off," Mr. Ennor stressed.

He added, "And when you are talking about plantations is from ten acres onwards and who will have the urge to do that one and again as a region, we don’t have large land that we give to people to plant these plantations and per the custom of our people, the land they own belongs to the people and the family. So, one particular farmer going to occupy this huge land, denying the other family members over years, is not customarily favourable.

"Even if you are able to establish during the rainy season, in the dry season people will leave all their animals to come and destroy your plantation, and aside from that, bushfires is also likely to destroy everything."