RIL keen to take up plantation

November 24: Ivin D’Souza, chairman, Karnataka State Cashew Development Corporation, has said that Reliance industries had come forward to take up extensive cashew plantation in the state adopting modern methodology and had sent a proposal asking for 5,000 hectares of land for developing cashew plantation at a cost of Rs 116 crore, which had been recommended to the government.

He told reporters during his recent visit to Kumta division that there was a demand for 6 lakh tonnes of cashew a year from the state, but the production was as low as 3 lakh tonnes. The corporation had initiated new positive programmes for enhancing the production substantially, he added.

He said there was great demand for cashew and wanted the other farmers also to take to raising cashew as it was very “remunerative” cash crop. He claimed that the newly-developed ullal-1 cashew species gave good yield of 20 kgs of nuts per tree in a short span and was a boon for cashew growers.

He said he had chalked out new programmes toeducate farmers about the need of increasing cashew plantation in the state to supplement their income and added that training camps at taluk levels were being organised by the corporation in all the four divisions of the state.