Ullal-based station promoting better-yielding cashew variety

Mangalore, Feb 13 (TH): Ullal-based Cashew Research Station, functioning under the Bangalkot-based University of Horticultural Sciences, is promoting a better-yielding variety of cashew, NDR 1-2.

Station head Lakshman told presspersons on the sidelines of the cashew fair – the station's annual interactive field day for farmers – that this variety had good seed size and yielded 21.4 kg a plant per year on an average. Originally developed at Cashew Research Station in Madakkathara in Kerala's Thrissur district, its use in coastal areas here was approved after a 10-year research on its suitability for the region. He said the variety scored over the locally developed varieties such as Ullal-1, Ullal-2, Ullal-3, Ullal-4 and UN-50. Best of them, Ullal-1 could yield about 20 kg per plant per year.

Mr. Lakshman said the Government had been urged to announce a subsidy scheme for encouraging cashew farmers. He regretted that farmers were shunning cultivation of cashew for rubber in view of the incentives given by the Rubber Board.

He said that a Rs. 3-lakh project to take up ethanol extraction from cashew was awaiting clearance from the university. The research station would have to set up a distilling unit and a fermentation unit for extraction of ethanol.

Later, speakers at the inauguration of the fair expressed concern that the yield in Karnataka was as low as 461 kg per hectare while this rate for Maharashtra was as high as 1,186 kg per hectare. They called for adoption of improved techniques of cultivation and proper harvesting methods to improve production.

The member of the University's Board of Management, S.D. Sampath Samrajya, said cashew earned foreign exchange of about Rs. 3,000 crore, but its production had remained static in the country at 4.5 lakh to 5 lakh tonnes. The cashew processing industries needed 12 lakh tonnes in the country and they were forced to import raw cashew seeds. In Dakshina Kannada and Udupi alone there were more than 200 cashew processing units. There was a need to augment cashew production to meet the demand, he added.

Vice-Chancellor of the university S.B. Dandin said the university would soon introduce stipend based courses to prepare youths to take to agriculture. He said he had recommended to the State Government to stress on “A-learning” (Agriculture-learning) in the “Agri Budget” which Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa had proposed to introduce from this year. He said he was part of the consultative meetings in this regard till Friday. He wanted agriculture-oriented lessons for students from classes 8 to plus 2 level so that youngsters remained grounded to agriculture instead of clamouring for medical and engineering courses.

(Source: http://mangalorean.com/news.php?newstype=local&newsid=222091)