Location
(States):
Abia,
Benue, Enugu, Imo, Ebonyi, Kaduna, Ogun, Ondo,
Anambra, Kano, Bauchi,
Taraba, Jigawa, Benue.
Annual Production (MetricTonnes):
1999
FAO year book 152,000 for 1999.
Industrial
uses:
Useful
as food, industrial raw materials and have ornamental and medical
importance. Industrially it is useful in breweries for wine and vinegar
production.
Process
Technology/Equipment:
Two main products from the cashew tree:
the cashew nuts and apples.
Cashew Nut
Cashew nut drying which leads to a major products:, Cashew nut shell
liquid (CNSL) cashew nut kernel oil.
Equipment
Cleaning, grading, roasting/ decortication, peeling, kernel drying
and vacuum packing of the finished products
Cashew apple processing
Harvesting and transportation; crushing and pressing,
amelioration;
Sulfur
dioxide addition; preparation of pure yeast starter; fermentation;
packing; ageing/maturation; clarification;
blending and bottling.
Status/Prospects:
This
is a tropical tree crop widely distributed throughout the tropics.
In Nigeria, its production compared to other cash crops has been
relegated to the background.
It is still a wild cash crop suffering the yearly effects of bush
burning.
Cashew is a very important industrial and export cash crop yet to
be fully exploited by Nigerian farmers and industrialists.
R&D Activities:
A
cashew nut shell liquid (CNSL) extraction machine has been designed and
developed in Nigeria by the Department of Agric Engineering of the
University of Nigeria,
Nsukka.
The machine uses an auger - crushing mechanism to crush and
squeeze out the CNSL from the nuts. The Cocoa Research Institute of
Nigeria (CRN) has also developed cashew apple juice, drink, vinegar,
gin, candy, jam and pectin from the cashew pseudo apple. The institute
also fabricated and developed Apple juice extractor for cottage level
production.
