Nigeria: Cashew traders want govt intervention

The National Cashew Association of Nigeria has called for government intervention in the sector, asking government at all levels to go into cashew plantation.

Besides, the association raised the alarm over the infiltration of the sector by foreigners, who it accused of attempting to sabotage the economy of the country.

Ondo State chairman of the association, Mr  Gbemi Lukman, said this in Akure, Ondo State capital ,at the flag off of the 2014 cashew season.

According to him, there was the need to invest heavily in the trade in order to further boost the foreign earning of Nigeria.

He said government at the federal, state and local level, should go into cashew plantation and also encourage the farmers that were into the trade.

Lukman noted that the kind of attention being given to cocoa by government should be extended to cashew, saying that the country had capacity to produce higher than the present production volume.

He added that there was the need for government to diversify the economy of the country and desist from making it a monolithic one.

Also speaking ,the secretary of the association, Kola Balogun, said foreigners from India were already sabotaging the sector with their activities.

According to him, the people had formed themselves into cartel and dictate the method at which the product would be sold.

He noted that the cartel no longer wait for the produce at their warehouse or stores but now go to farm gate, where he alleged that innocent farmers were being shortchanged and cheated.

He argued that instead of going through the Local Buying Agents (LBA), they now go into the farms, saying such development was not allowed anywhere in the world., “We are ready to develop our economy but we should not allow foreigners to dictate to us how we will run our economy, we are not fighting the Indians but things should be done according to laid down procedure”.he said.