The Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS), has disclosed its readiness to conduct a census exercise on the production of cashew as a cash crop in Nigeria, in order to have a better understanding of the cashew value chain in the country.
Representative of the NBS, Mr Bishop Olubo-Ojo Ohioma, made this known in Lagos during a cashew production stakeholders’ engagement forum organized by PRO-Cashew project in collaboration with the African Cashew Alliance (ACA).
The NBS was established through the merger of the Federal Office of Statistics (FOS) and the National Data Bank (NDB), to give the agency a national outlook as the apex statistical agency for all three tiers of government.
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The Bureau coordinates statistical operations of the National Statistical System to produce official statistics on a continuous and sustainable basis on all facets of development in Nigeria.
Ohioma hinted that NBS had agreed with cashew stakeholders at the forum to carry out a baseline survey, to know the actual production of cashew in Nigeria and to know how many farmers are into cashew production, as well as to give actual quantities of cashew that are being exported and consumed locally.
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“Whatever figure we are getting today is like an estimate because we cannot say with certainty as of now that this is the number of farmers we have that are cultivating cashew in Nigeria.” We cannot also say with certainty the Local Government Area or the community that are cultivating cashew. It means what we are even doing is like underestimating our production capacity in Nigeria.
“What we have now is a plus minus of over 300,000 metric tons. It may be plus or minus.” But with this forum, if we are able to collaborate and we are able to carry out a census of cashew production in Nigeria, we will know our actual production and we will know how to move from there”. Ohioma explained
