CASHEW NUT – A CASH CROP OF WASTELAND

 CASHEW NUT – A CASH CROP OF WASTELAND

Cashew nut (Anacardium occidentale L.) was brought by Portuguese sailors to India during the last part of the 16^th century. After its introduction to India, the crop performed marvelously and at present, it is cultivated in the Indian states such as Maharastra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, North Eastern States, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and at some other places in restricted patches. In the present day, Cashew nut cultivation plays an important role in earning foreign exchange. It is a boon to Odisha that mostly the soil and climatic parameters are quite suitable for cashew cultivation in the state. Moreover, this crop can be grown with less investment and labour orientation. The cultivars of Odisha can take the opportunity to promote the cashew area, production and productivity, adopting the recent cashew production technology.

Fig. Parts of the cashew fruit

        Cashew nut can be grown in a broad range of soil groups except in heavy soil, waterlogged soil and on hard rock. During flowering and fruiting time, the crop cannot tolerate extreme temperatures. The growers should select suitable soil for Cashew nut cultivation. The area where cashews can be grown must not experience less than 10⁰C temperature or more than 38⁰C temperature during the flowering and fruit-setting period.

             For commercial cashew cultivation, instead of seedling progenies, grafted Cashew nut plants are to be transplanted. Amongst various methods of clonal multiplication of Cashew nut, softwood-grafting technique proved the best in the recent research findings.

• A quality-grafted plant selected for planting must be quite strong, stout, healthy and free from insect and disease infection.
• Five / six month to one year old grafted plants is desirable for planting.
• Seven / eight leaves or more in a grafted plant must be there.
• There should be perfect union of the graft joint.

 The grafted plant does not attend huge vegetative growth as in the seedling progenies and also bears flowers and fruits early. Procuring the planting materials is done from the nearby nurseries of reliable sources so as to get the true-to-the-type quality planting materials with minimum expenditure in transit.

Forty-eight nos. of Hybrids and Improved cashew varieties developed so far for cultivation in India. However many of the varieties do not respond well to cultivation in the state based on the agro-ecological condition of Odisha. Suitable cashew hybrids / cashew varieties / cashew types for Odisha condition are H 2/16 (BPP-8), H 1608 (Dhana), V-4, H 320, H 303, NRCC Selection – 2, H 367 and H 68. Besides these types, Jagannatha, Balabhadra, and Subhadra (recently developed) are the three promising hybrids developed by the Cashew Research Station; Bhubaneswar performed better under Bhubaneswar conditions. All these types depicted their superiority in terms of the major yield attributing traits and proved themselves good types.

• A good cashew type must have a high female to male sex ratio.
• It should bear nuts in clusters
• It must be of bold nut type with nut weight not less than 7.0 g
• The kernel recovery percentage should not be below 28.0 %.

             Normally the spacing is recommended as 7.5 X 7.5 m or 8 X 8 m to accommodate 200 plants/hectare. But under high density planting system under 4 X 4 m spacing, 625 plants/hectare can be planted. After 6 – 7 years of planting, plants of each alternate row are removed, thus maintaining the normal spacing of 8 X 8 m. Because the plants give yield from the third year onwards of planting, so in the initial 3 – 4 years, they provide additional income to the farmers in comparison with the normal plant density. The pit size should be 60 cm X 60 cm X 60 cm. But in rocky soil, large pits of 1 m X 1 m X 1 m are dug during the month of May.

            In Odisha's condition, as the monsoon breaks during 1^st week to 2^nd week of June, transplanting can be taken up after the breaking of the monsoon up to the end of August. At the time of planting, 5 kg of well rotten cow dung mixed with 200 g of rock phosphate per pit is well mixed with the pit soil. This ensures plants for early establishment and fruiting.

 In the subsequent years after planting, recommended doses of balanced chemical fertilizer of 500g of N, 125g of P₂O₅ and 250g of K₂O / matured plant are applied to the plants in trenches. For the 1^st year, 1/3^rd of this recommended dose; for the 2^nd year, 2/3^rd of the dose and from 3^rd year onwards full dose is applied either in two splits, once in July and then in September or the full dose once in the month of July – August. Fertilizer application no doubt increases the yield of the plants.

Allowing the main stem to free from side branches up to a height of 1 m above the ground level is desirable. Besides that, the water suckers and dead and undesirable branches are removed. In a 5 – 6 year old plant at 4 – 5 meter height, the plant is beheaded so that the plant is allowed not to grow much vertically and to ensure bushy growth as well as better flowering and fruiting. Generally all sorts of training and pruning operations in Odisha condition are done June 2^nd week onwards after the fruiting is over.

In the cashew plantations of Odisha, weeds such as Lantana camara, Mimosa pudica and some other species are most common. They hamper the growth and yield of the main crop, cashew as well as the intercrops. They also create hindrances in other cultural operations nut collection and allow insect pest attacks. Manually the weeds may be cut and incorporated in the soil during the month of August or application of the weedicide Glyophosphate @ 5 ml/litre of water is done. Second round spraying of weedicide may be taken up if necessary just after the rainy season.

During flowering and fruiting season in the month of January to March providing irrigation at 15 days intervals considerably increases the yield. But care should be taken not to accumulate water at the base of the plant and it is immediately drained out.

Ripe and matured nuts are harvested to facilitate better kernel recovery from the nuts. Spreading the nuts on an open floor under the sun immediately after harvest for 3-4 days reduces the moisture content and helps in storing for longer periods without impairing the quality of the nuts.

Tea Mosquito Bugs and Cashew Stem and Root Borers are the two major pests in cashews. Besides that there is also a mild attack of some minor pests. Tea Mosquito Bug attacks are very sporadic and intermittently occurred in restricted patches in South Odisha. To prevent the attack of the cashew pests three round spray of Triazophos @ 0.05 % during vegetative flushing, Endosulfan @ 0.05 % during flowering and Carbaryl @ 0.1 % at the time of fruiting is done. This operation not only prevents most of the insects attack but also helped in boosting the production.

Cashew cultivation is taken up in small and marginal holdings and as more than 70% of the cashew area is under this category, cashew plays an important role in the development of small and marginal farmers. Odisha has a vast wasteland and coastal area, which can be utilized for cashew nut cultivation. It is a technically feasible, financially viable and bankable activity in the areas identified suitable for it based on agro-climatic conditions.