Interesting but with misinformation. India does not import cashews. India is a country and not an importer. There are many private companies that import that are from India and there is lots of competition. The government of Guinea-Bissau still has an export tax on cashew, and they also restrict who can buy. The production of cashew wine, which has the same return as the nuts on a per tree bases, was not even mentioned.
What is needed is more competition from buyers, freer markets, no taxes, and less FAO.
The average small farmer family produces 1,100 kilos of cashew. (100,000 farmers households produce 110 thousand tons). Their income is at least $220 plus an equal amount from the wine. That means that a family has an cash equivalent of $440 per year. Mozambican cashew farmer make less than $50 per year.
The farmers have already voted on what is most important to them. Cashew production has gone from less than 15 thousand tones in 1990 to 110 thousand tons today (with no rural extension, no credit and no government or FAO support). Rice production is going in the opposite direction. The farmers can only make about $100 a year from rice and it takes about the same time to produce as cashew. Cashew is a perennial tree crop that once planted can last decades. Rice has to be planted every year and in Guinea-Bissau the capital cost and labor for building and maintaining barriers and channels for rice are huge. Why can’t FAO learn from those that know ie the farmers.
The world wants cashews, while rice producing countries subsidies their exports. Guinea-Bissau is producing and exporting a high value international commodity while getting a subsidy on its rice imports.
FAO’s ideas on rice could do more harm to Guinea-Bissau than the last conflict.
Jim
Food security is $100 in your pocket.
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