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Moniliformis means ‘like a string of beads’ signifying the arrangement of flowers on the spike. The tree is native of tropical Australia. It is valued for afforestation and beautification. It grows in warm climate under both dry and moist atmosphere. It is a medium-sized, thornless, quick growing, evergreen tree of 13 to 15 m height.

Leaves: True leaves are present only in early seedling stage. The apparent leaves are the modified midrib called phyllode, leathery, sickle-shaped, tapered at each end, up to 18 cm long and 6 cm broad; nerves parallel.

Trees are perennial in nature and are valuable elements in a landscape. Trees provide shade, privacy and beauty but a tree in a wrong place may create problem in years to come. To avoid this, care should be taken while selecting trees for landscape. The ultimate size and shape of the mature tree, how much annual maintenance it requires, location and purpose are major considerations while selecting a tree. Matured tree height and tree diameter should fit it into the space when tree is planted. Shape of canopy, colour of flower and season of flowering are also to be considered.

Urbanization coupled with industrial development creates problems of environment like air pollution, water pollution, noise pollution and civic ugliness. Of late, there is a greater awareness of environmental issues and increasing understanding of several attributes of vegetation. This led to an intensification of activity in the field of landscape horticulture to combat pollution and create an aesthetic environment for recreation and healthy living. Planning and execution of landscape projects for different urban locations should be done to meet both aesthetic and ecological requirements.

What is the use of several trees grown in the forest? A single tree by the way side is far better where under people can rest (Vrikshayurveda).

The towns and villages are made more healthy, more beautiful and more efficient by well planned streets with avenue planting. There is no doubt that, an impressive avenue gives any property the special distinction that it desires. In the past, Emperor Ashoka and Mughal rulers paid attention to roadside planting. Avenue trees primarily provide shade and act as windbreaks, weather conditioners-by purifying and humidifying the air, check radiation of heat and obstruct glare, limit noise and enhance the beauty of the street where they are planted. Roadside planting has two aspects; beauty and utility and both these aspects should be combined. This requires a thorough knowledge of plant material and imagination in planning.

What is the use of several trees grown in the forest? A single tree by the way side is far better where under people can rest (Vrikshayurveda).

The towns and villages are made more healthy, more beautiful and more efficient by well planned streets with avenue planting. There is no doubt that, an impressive avenue gives any property the special distinction that it desires. In the past, Emperor Ashoka and Mughal rulers paid attention to roadside planting. Avenue trees primarily provide shade and act as windbreaks, weather conditioners-by purifying and humidifying the air, check radiation of heat and obstruct glare, limit noise and enhance the beauty of the street where they are planted. Roadside planting has two aspects; beauty and utility and both these aspects should be combined. This requires a thorough knowledge of plant material and imagination in planning.

Trees alone on the earth give happiness both here and hereafter. Since they “save” from abject poverty they are named “taravah” (the saviors). Therefore, the trees should be carefully nurtured as through their shade, flowers and fruits they help immensely in the pursuit of dharma, artha, and kama (Vrikshayurveda).

The early inhabitants of our country were very conscious of the placement of their dwellings in beautiful surroundings. The best examples are from the West Coast, where the houses were traditionally constructed in the midst of gardens. The Arab traveller and historian, Ibn Batuta, in his itinerary in coastal Malabar recorded their picturesque beauty, as early as in the 10th century AD. The whole compound was planted with trees, which were useful and aesthetic in appeal. The scholarly elite used trees and shrubs mentioned in Kalidasa’s work in their planting schemes. Through the tree and foliage, a path is formed to the main village.

The cultural history of India is associated with religious believes and any emphasis on arguments dealing with plant-man-God relationship appeals to people even today. This attitude prevails throughout India and many places of worship have continued to preserve in situ biodiversity of specific species of plants.

Trees rise towards the sky, beautiful symbol of Nature’s aspiration for light. Sri Aurobindo writes “When the sun sets and all become silent, sit down under a tree for a moment and put yourself into communication with Nature: you will feel rising from the earth, from below roots of the trees and mounting upwards and coursing through their fibres upto the highest outstretching branches, the aspiration of an intense love and longing, - a longing for something that brings light and gives happiness. There is a yearning so pure and intense that if you can feel the movement in the trees, your own being too will go up in an ardent prayer for the peace and light and love that are unmanifested here”.

Brief History of Cashew Nut Processing Industry in India

As is known in the Cashew Trade Circles, cashewnut was not an indigenous product of India. A few hundred years back, the Portuguese brought it to Goa in India, from Brazil. The Portuguese also took it to their other colonies in Africa viz. Mozambique on the East Coast and Angola on the West Coast. In Mozambique, it spread all over the territory i.e. from Lourenco in the South to Ibo in the North and thence to British East Africa (now Tanzania) and Kenya. Though, now it is known as cashewnut, still in Mozambique and India, it is known by its original Portuguese name ‘CAJU’.

Intercropping

Canopy of cashew to cover the entire area in about 8 to 10 years when grown under normal spacing of 8m x 8m in fertile soil. However, in marginal lands, it takes 10 to 12 years for the canopy to cover entire area. Cashew when grown in hilly regions there is a possibility of soil erosion and weed growth during initial years of planting (Yadukumar and Nayak, 2000). Intercropping is the only available best options to prevent such erosions and conserve soil and moisture in hilly areas and to obtain sustainable income.

Recently, establishment of large plantations and adoption of systematic package of practices and intercropping is practiced to realize additional income in the initial years of cashew cultivations. When the cashew canopy starts touching the neighbouring trees possibility of intercropping is ruled out. Mixed cropping with other tree species is not widely accepted and even not advisable (Anon., 1997), though there are a few instances of growing casuarina as mixed crop in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa states (Yadukumar and Nayak, 2000).

Some of the constraints in cashew production in the country which limits the productivity of cashew per unit area

• % Large area under cashew in the country is still covered with non-descript genetically inferior seedling progenies.

• % Cashew is a neglected plantation crop among the farmers and generally grown under neglected condition.

• % The land which is not suitable for other plantation crops only are available to cashew crop. Hence, the land which is available for cashew is usually eroded and degraded with poor soil fertility.

• % Farmers are not fully aware of the latest cashew production technologies due to inadequate transfer of technology.

• % Even if farmers are aware of the latest cashew production technologies, non adoption of recommended package of practices to the extent required.

• % Absence of compact and dwarf high yielding varieties, because of which high density planting cannot be adopted to realize the full potentiality of high density planting technology.

Cashew is one major crop of Konkan region of Maharashtra and requires comparatively less expenditure for cultivation as compared with other crops. Under normal planting density (7m x 7m), about 200 plants/ha are occupied. If the cashew grower has its own land, then for first five year of orchard establishment and maintenance, total expenditure of Rs. 47447 is come up. Year wise expenditure (first five years) on cashew cultivation per hectare is presented in Table 61.

Cashew (Anacardium occidentale L.) is one of the most important commercial crops of India. The crop is grown on commercial scale in coastal Maharashtra and other states of the country. The main reason for the low productivity is the pest incidence. The insect pests cause crop loss ranging from 30 to 40 per cent in cashew (Satapathy, 1993). Keeping in view, the strategy of increasing production, one of the important aspects is to develop technologies to save the crop from the pest incidences.

Cashew is attacked by around 180 species of insect and non-insect pests in India resulting in substantial yield loss (Sundararaju, 1993b). Godse et al. (2004) reported over 58 species of insects and pests on cashew crop in the Kokan region of Maharashtra region. The infestations of insect pests have been identified as one of the major factor responsible for low productivity. The most important pests that limit production are the cashew stem and borer (CSRB) and the tea mosquito bug (TMB). In addition, leaf and blossom webber, shoot tip caterpillar, and apple and nut borer cause damage. Recently, apple and nut borer and leaf miner are emerging as major pests and they also occasionally becoming serious in some orchards.

Cashew apple, a highly potential nutritional source, is almost entirely wasted now. In Goa, cashew apple juice is fermented and distilled for production of alcohol. Cashew apple is juicy and swollen. It is a rich reserve of vitamins and minerals. The cashew apple is the peduncle of the nut. Normally the apple is 8 to 10 fold large by weight compared to cashew nut, at ripe stage. Cashew apples can be of different size and shape. The ripe apple is very juicy and fibrous with thin skin. When fully ripe, it gets detached from the pedicel and falls down. In Brazil, cashew is a popular fresh fruit and dwarf types are being evaluated to fulfil the market requirements of fresh cashew apple in terms of red colour, high sugar, low tannin etc.

Cashew Kernels

The role of balanced diet in contributing to a long and healthy life is undisputed. Diet related diseases are quite common even among the people of the affluent West. Unlike in developing countries, where many diseases are caused by deficiency in the quantity and / quality of diet. The diet related diseases among affluent populations result from excessive consumption of undesirable foods. Over consumption of foods of animal origin like meat and eggs are implicated in the causation of atherosclerotic heart diseases. Annual food consumption has also been suggested as possible aetiological factor in some cancers. After years of research, scientists are finding health benefits in a largely plant based diet emphasising foods low in saturated fats. On the basis of the awareness that excess animal food consumption is harmful, recent dietary guidelines all over the world recommend a reduction in the intake of meat and meat products and a liberal increase in consumption of fruits and nuts. Like meat and eggs, nuts are abundant in proteins, the body building material essential for growth and maintenance of tissues. Nuts are also a concentrated source of energy, since they contain liberal amounts of fat.

Raw cashew nuts are a seasonal commodity and the trading season is from March to May. Growers usually supply the primary or village markets where small traders collect and supply the urban markets. The cashew trade is seldom handled by exclusive traders. Usually, those traders who collect other plantation products also trade in cashew. Due to the highly competitive nature of the cashew trade, growers have few marketing problems. When large quantities are collected by middlemen, the processors enter the marketing chain and make wholesale purchases. Grades and standards for cashew are yet to be introduced in India. Quality is generally determined by appearance and cutting tests that traders employ prior to purchase. The raw cashew nut market involves a large amount of capital where nearly 80 per cent of the produce is transacted within a period of 35 days. The current value of Indian production is estimated at around Rs. 10,000 million. This capital is made available by industry for procurement and processing operations.

There are no growers’ cooperatives or organizations for cashew marketing. In Kerala, however, the government has been involved in the procurement process and supply to large-scale processors. This adversely affected the cashew trade and has now been replaced by a free market policy.

In addition to the local production of nearly 7 lakh tonnes, India also imports a considerable quantity of raw nuts from several African and South-east Asian countries to satisfy the national processing capacity of about 12-14 lakh tonnes established in the country.

Introduction

Once the cashew fruits fallen, are collected, the nuts are to be separated from the cashew apple and sun dried for 2 to 3 days. This is very important in view of the quality of kernels obtained during subsequent processing. Raw nuts at the time of harvest will have moisture content ranging between 16 to 25 per cent; while sun dried nuts have moisture content of 8 to 10 per cent (Nagaraja, 2000). If the nuts are not dried and stored properly, it leads to fungal spoilage resulting in poor quality of kernels. Fungi such as Gonatobotryum, Helminthosporium sp., Corynespora sp., Alteraaria sp., Verticillium sp. and many species of Aspergillus have been isolated from stored cashew nuts (Joseph, 1981). In view of the occurrence of fungi, drying of the raw nuts before storage becomes absolutely essential. Maximum permissible moisture content of raw cashew nuts is 8.7 to 9.1% (Ohler, 1979). Okwelogu and Mackay (1969) have reported that high whole nut or kernel moisture percentages are closely associated with high shell moisture contents and for nuts whose moisture content is in equilibrium with the ambient relative humidity, the moisture content of whole nut and kernel could be predicted from that of shell with more than 99% accuracy. A higher kernel shell weight ratio has been shown to be inversely proportional to moisture content.

Maturity of Cashewnut

Cashew fruit has two parts namely cashew nut (actual fruit) and cashew apple (pseudo fruit). Development of these is not parallel. Cashew nut develops first and the pseudo fruit develops later. It takes 60 days for both the nut and the pseudo fruit to develop completely since anthesis. Development of cashew apple and nut has been studied by number of workers in different cashew varieties (Rao et al., 1962; Augustin and Unnithan, 1981; Mohan Kumar et. al., 1984; Antarkar and Joshi, 1987). According to the report, specific gravity could be considered as physical index of maturity of nut in cashew varieties of V-1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 (Antarkar and Joshi, 1987; Mohan Kumar et al., 1984). In Thailand, the nut reached maximum size in 4 weeks after fruit set, hardened in the subsequent week and declined in size by 10 per cent at harvest (Sumrit Feungehan et al., 1989). Augustin and Unnithan (1981) have reported that the growth of nut is faster during early stage of development than that of fruit. All these reports indicate that the cashew nut develops earlier than cashew apple. Changes in the composition of cashew nut and apple during development have been looked into by various workers. Hariharan et al. (1985) have reported decrease in amino acid content in kernel with increased maturity. Cashew kernel lipid, free amino acids and CNSL have been shown to increase with increased maturity. Similarly, cashew kernel phenols have been shown to decrease with maturity. Changes in the kernel sugars and starch were not uniform (Anon., 1998).

In the orchard, several cultural operations like weeding, mulching, etc. are very important. Similarly protection from fire is also essential. The points are discussed here.

Weed Management

The Luxuriant weed growth is a common sight in neglected old cashew gardens. Weeds are not only harmful by competing for the nutrients and moisture but also cause inconvenience to take up effective plant protection measures and harvesting of fallen nuts; thus resulting in loss of yield. Therefore, sanitation of cashew orchard is very essential, it also minimise the incidence of cashew stem and root borer (CSRB). Careful weeding-clearing the area within 2 m radius of the trunk is essential. Clearing of weed growth is to be carried out twice in a year. Weeds may compete for nutrients and moisture with cashew. The weeding cycles are generally confined to the pre-monsoon and post-monsoon periods to coincide with the fertilizer application.

Weeds should also be controlled between the rows. This can be done by inter-cropping with certain crops for 3/4 years before the tree canopies close in. In addition a legume can be grown to both control weeds and fix nitrogen for the trees. This improves the soil and makes the nutrient available.