New hybrids show promise for cashew crop
Despite the high price, they are a delicacy that is hard to resist. But as News 5’s Patrick Jones reports, if one well known couple has their way, Belizean cashews will one day become as plentiful as bananas and oranges.
Patrick Jones, Reporting
Cashew is one of the most versatile of our Belizean fruits. Whether it?s the roasted nut, cashew wine, stewed cashew or simply eating the astringent flesh, the fruit has been tempting the taste buds for hundreds of years.
But a new venture underway in the Belize district is attempting to improve on the quality and quantity of local production. Maria Elena Sylvestre is operations manager for Finca Marañon.
Maria Elena Sylvestre, Operations Manager, Finca Marañon.
?We are in the third year of a research and development to develop a superior cashew tree that will be able to make an impact on the industry in this country. We are trying to develop a product that can be exported, that will make a difference, especially in the climate where we are having problems with our traditional crops.?
Sylvestre and her husband have been involved in cashew production for more than three decades, and have seen both good and not so good times.
Maria Elena Sylvestre
?And after a lot of trial and error, we came to the conclusion that the old traditional way with the old trees, you know our beautiful big spreading trees will not give us the commercial viability that we were looking for. And that?s when we decided to seek help from the experts. And we were able to access the assistance of the European Union who brought the expert from Australia.?
That expert is Ian Duncan from the Australian Cashew Company who has been working in the research programme at the Sylvestre?s twenty acre plot near La Democracia village. Duncan says what is being done here is called genetic selection, where the best trees are chosen, and then grafted with seedlings to produce the perfect specimen.
Ian Duncan, Cashew Consultant
?By that I mean large nuts but with a high ration of kernel to nut, something in excess of thirty percent. And after that we are then looking at such characteristics as resistance to disease, resistance to insects, and certainly resistance to wind damage. And when you put all these things together and you come up with a high density tree of the right shape that flowers at the right time, that gives you the maximum crop of the highest quality. Then that?s our ultimate objective.?
The Sylvestres say they?ve so far invested close to a quarter of a million dollars of their own money to develop this new hybrid of cashew trees. And while much money and effort is being spent on the project, Maria Elena Sylvestre says, the idea is not to wipe out traditional cashew production.
Maria Elena Sylvestre
?Never; the traditional cashew tree has its own place, the cottage industry in Crooked Tree and in Burrel Boom is a beautiful tradition and the quality of their seeds is something rare and everybody loves it. And we will always have a market for that. But if we want to be in the world production for cashews, we?ve got to go this way.?
Sylvestre says the research and development phase is expected to be completed in another three years, at which time a full nursery or bud wood products will be available to anyone who want to go into full production.
Maria Elena Sylvestre
?We hope to have a cashew plantation of at least six hundred acres. But for the country as whole we hope to be able to provide clonally grafted trees from this superior gene pool to a potential industry of forty-five thousand acres. This very year we will have about five thousand of the seedling trees to jump start farmers who want to produce a superior tree that perhaps can supply the Maxborough factory.?
With the high labor costs related to cashew production, Duncan says the new hybrid will make it easier for farmers to maximize outputs with minimum investments.
Ian Duncan
?It is benefit times benefit times benefit. And when you add it all together, the difference can be enormous. But it?s other things of course. The crop will come faster; the trees if they are looked after will last longer. We believe that trees that are looked after may crop for fifty years. We don?t know, but it may be a very long time. And the important thing is to remember when you plant a tree, you are left with it for maybe say fifty years, so if you plant a good tree, you?ve got it for fifty years. And if you plant a bad tree, will you are stuck with that for many years too.?
And after sixteen hundred trees and a couple of years into the experiment, Sylvestre says the results are encouraging.
Maria Elena Sylvestre
?These trees are less than two years old and they have already given their first crop and it?s very exciting. If we continue along this path and if we don?t have any natural disaster like hurricane or fires, it bodes well for this country and for the future of cashews in Belize.?
Patrick Jones, for News Five.
