Project description

Title: African Cashew Initiative (ACi)
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ); Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Country: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Mozambique
Lead executing agency: Ministries of agriculture in the project countries
Overall term: 2009 to 2013

Context

Nearly 40 % of the global cashew crop is produced by about 1.5 million small farmers in Africa. The vast majority of these farmers live in rural areas and struggle to earn as little as EUR 90 to 330 per year from cashew production. Such low incomes result from a number of factors, including low yields, poor quality nuts, and a lack of business skills.

Cashew farmers in Africa rarely organise themselves into associations, which weakens their bargaining position with dealers. Furthermore, because of the poor quality of their produce they are not sufficiently integrated into international markets. Another weak point is the fact that less than two per cent of Africa's raw cashews are actually processed in Africa. This leaves untapped a large source of potential jobs and poverty reduction.

Objective

The competitiveness of African cashew producers in Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Mozambique has increased. Poverty has been sustainably reduced in these countries.

Approach

The African Cashew Initiative (ACi) is using advisory services and training at all stages of the production process to help the African cashew farmers meet international standards. This includes better entrepreneurial practices, yield improvements, improved post-harvest techniques, cooperative farming systems, and serving specialised markets.

ACi specifically addresses companies that process the cashew nuts. It advises them on expanding their operations and keeping abreast of market developments, on applying for credits and other financial assistance, and on improving the way they use technology. The initiative is also working on using data systems to supply farmers and processing companies with market relevant information. Moreover, it will use additional advertising of the African brands to improve the worldwide marketing of African cashews, and it is trying to persuade decision makers in the project countries to improve the business climate for cashew production.

Through a combination of strategies, the initiative aims to raise the incomes of 150,000 cashew farmers in the participating countries by at least USD 100 within four years, and also to create 5,500 new processing jobs, above all for women. Another target is to increase the quantity of processed raw cashew nuts from 7,000 to 22,000.

GIZ has the lead role in the project, which it is implementing together with three other international partners, the African Cashew Alliance, an international platform of public and private partners involved in the cashew value chain, FairMatchSupport, a Dutch non-profit organisation, and the US-based NGO for rural business TechnoServe.

Results achieved so far

Since the initiative began its work in April 2009, more than 100,000 cashew farmers and 887 trainers have been qualified. The quality of the cashews being grown has improved considerably and smallholder farmers have been put in touch with processing companies. As a result of these efforts, the combined income of cashew farmers in the five participating countries has increased by USD 5 million.

At the same time, nearly 1,400 new jobs have already been created in the processing industry, and some of the processing companies have been able to increase their productivity by more than 100 %.

Further information

• African Cashew Initiative (ACi)
  http://aci.africancashewalliance.com