The horticulture department of the ministry has already cut down the annual cashew

development allotment to traditional cashew-producing belts like Kerala and Karnataka and has focussed on states like Maharashtra and Orissa and Goa.Kerala, which had long been the cashew bowl of the country, is likely to get less than five per cent of the overall allotment in the coming years. From Rs 92.02 lakh in 1997-98, Kerala's share has been pared to Rs 85.94 lakh in 1998-99. Out of the Rs 16.8 crore, earmarked for cashew development programmes of states, Rs 6.56 crore is set aside forMaharashtra and Rs 2.12 crore for Orissa.

The Centre is also planning to experiment with pushing cashew cultivation into the north-east states, with vast waste land reserves. As a token allotment, West Bengal and the north-east cluster of Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Manipur together are to get Rs 8.16 lakh and Rs 43.17 lakh respectively.

The major allocation, out of the Rs 16.7 crore cashew development kitty for the states, is for the development of new plantations and replanting programmes with clones of high yielding varieties of cashew. The remaining portion is for intensive pest control measures and necessary executional infrastructure to the States.

Vilaschandran, a cashew plantation expert in National Bank for Agricultural Rural Development (Nabard), here, predicts that the move is also likely to trigger a corresponding shuffle in the cashew processing industry in the coming years. In the short run, the cashew-processing industry concentrated on south Kerala and depending on raw nutimports of about four lakh tonnes every year, may benefit from the increase in the domestic cashew production. However, in the long run, moving the processing units also to north of the country might emerge more profitable, he added.

Following the labour militancy in the Kollam cashew belt in the eighties, a section of the industry had already shifted to Tamil Nadu. The radical refocussing in the regional thrust of cashew development programmes basically eyes the vast land surpluses in Maharashtra and Orissa, sources in the Directorate of Cashew and Coccoa Development (DCCD) told The Financial Express. The Wasteland Development Authority in these States have also put up specific proposals to enhance the area under cashew. According to the DCCD, the land-starved Kerala offers little scope for further development in area. Despaired by the slow growth of productivity figures, the Directorate is bent on improving the area under cashew. A multi-state cashew development project, with World Bank assistance, hadalso reached nowhere in improving the productivity.

The slow phase-out of Kerala from the cashew map has also been effected by the apathy of the state government, according to sources. Despite the multi-crore, Technology Mission on Cashew project, there is little impetus from the state government to stimulate replanting with high yielding varieties. While Goa, buoyed by the fenni industry, has gone in a big way for HYVs that give counts (number per pound) up to 200, the state has stuck to traditional seed-born plants that give only up to 120 count. Out of the Centre's allotment to Kerala of Rs 87.83 lakh in 1997-98, the state had allowed lapse of more than Rs 23 lakh. Tamil Nadu, which is not short of land, had also been lagging in the utilisation of production enhancement funds.