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The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) has trained stakeholders on cashew post-harvest handling in Edo State.
The one-day capacity building included harvesting, drying, sorting/grading, bagging, storage, processing, packaging and marketing. It was organised by the cashew value chain department of the ministry.
Declaring the workshop open, the permanent secretary of the ministry, Ernest Umakhihe, said the training was to meet the need for awareness creation and improve the technical know-how of cashew farmers, aggregators, processors and marketers on post-harvest handling to ensure quality of cashew products for local and international markets.
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Represented by Bernard Ukattah, Deputy Director, FMARD, Umakhihe said the importance of cashew had become more pronounced, being the second non-oil export foreign exchange earner for the country.
“Cashew is currently providing livelihood for over 500,000 families in Nigeria. It is important to state that the excellence and thoroughness of post-harvest handling affects the quality of cashew products, which affects the country’s reputation for those products and by-products in the local and international market.
“High quality nut is of primary concern to exporters and one of the major criteria for success in the international market. Hence, dis-coloured, pitted, shriveled nuts are not to be mixed with good nuts,” he said.
The state Director of Agriculture, Edo FMARD Office, Wellington Omoragbon, urged participants to take advantage of the training to increase their yield and learn the post-harvest handling.
Mr Samuel Ojeimoghan, a cashew farmer from Afuze, in Owan East Local Government area of the state, thanked the ministry for the support, and promised to train other farmers in his domain.
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