CASHEW


  



  	
	
Cashew agriculture 
 
 
 Cashew can be planted in pits of 60cm x 60cm x 60cm size in soils with normal strata. In hard lateritic soils, pits of 1m x 1m x 1m size are recommended. The top soil and sub-soil are kept separately and allowed to wither under sun. It helps in migration of termites and ants.  
The processing of cashew involves the following steps : 

   
 - Preliminary cleaning 

   
 - Roasting 

   
 - Shelling and separation  

   
 - Drying 

   
 - Peeling 

   
 Preliminary cleaning of cashew nuts is done by manual picking of large objects and by sieving. The
    cleaned cashew nut is roasted in open pan or earthen ware or rotary cylinder or hot oil bath. The first
    two methods are simple and cheap, but they are time consuming and lead to poor recovery of CNSL
    (Cashew Nut Shell Liquid). The rotary cylinder method is more hygienic and efficient, but a major
    portion of the CNSL would be lost. The hot oil bath process combines good roasting and recovery of
    shell liquid. The cleaned cashew nuts are placed in wire baskets and immersed in a tank containing
    CNSL, boiling at a constant temperature of about 180-200°C for about 60 to 90 seconds. The CNSL
    in the tank should be stirred continuously to avoid local overheating and excessive polymerization and
    clogging. However, the hot oil bath processing is costlier, and is resorted to only by a few processors.
    The most common method adopted is roasting by rotary cylinder method. After roasting, the shells are
    removed and the nuts extracted manually. In manual shelling, recovery of whole kernels is more
    compared to the mechanical shelling. The kernels are dried in hot air chambers which facilitates
    peeling of the outer coating or testa. To prevent breakage, the kernels are to be handled very carefully,
    as they are brittle at this stage. The shelling percentage of cashew varies between 20-25. 
 
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