Is Ghana's cashew another cocoa?

desmond frimpong

February 21, 2018 6:42 PM

Agricultural policy needs to be spot on because that is where initial improvement in the standard of living is more likely to come from simply because the majority of Ghana's population is engaged in one form of agriculture or the other.

The Government launched a major agricultural initiative this week - a Cashew Development Plan to diversify Ghana's agriculture through transforming cashew into a major cash crop. Like cocoa?

Will it bring in as much foreign exchange as cocoa? Cocoa brings in what - $700 million a year? Is that about the same as what Oil brings in? I'm trying to understand how significant this initiative is.

I wish more time was spent explaining these major moves. Publication on the front page of the Daily Graphic about a launch of this and a launch of that are wholly inadequate.

The Ministry should be out there now selling the plan and creating enthusiasm for it. Ghanaians need to get excited about something other than church, and political parties.

They need to understand the thinking behind such a policy so that they can defend it when new governments emerge to ditch it or as is more often preferred, introduce a rival to it.

How has government arrived at cashew? Why not oil palm? Why not rubber? Why a 10-year plan and not a 20-year plan?

I found out from the report that Cashew is Ghana's leading nontraditional export. Ok. So we can see why. Build upon what you got.

Was this a position once held by pineapple? What crop did cashew overtake? Or has it always been the leader? If it was not cashew, where would the government seek the diversification from?

By the way, is there going to be a Cashew Board like Cocoa Board? If the answer is yes, why?

Cocoa is our main cash crop and has carried the load alone for far too long.

Are we saying that Cashew will be our next Cocoa?

desmond frimpong