Journal of Agricultural Economics and Development Vol. 4(4), pp. 051-065, May 2015 ISSN 2327-3151 ©2015 Academe Research Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Evaluation of economic policy impacts on cashew supply and prospects for enhanced value addition in Nigeria

Oni Timothy Olukunle

Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER), P.M.B 5, U.I. Post Office, Oyo Road, Ojoo, Oyo State, Ibadan, Nigeria. E-mail: onikunle2012@ymail.com. Tel: +2348033950670.

Accepted 25 May, 2015

Abstract

Cashew supply had lagged behind demand for it both in the domestic and foreign markets. While the agro-industry faced serious problems in procuring the kinds and quantities of the commodity they want, producers of the commodity have remained poorly linked to the agro-industrial sector and availability of the commodity as raw material to agro-industry remained inadequate and irregular. This paper therefore examined how economic policy variables affect domestic supply and the prospects for diversification of increased cashew to agro-industry. Data for the study included policy variables such as real exchange rate, interest rate, wage rate, and government investment expenditure in agriculture. Data were analyzed using simultaneous equation regression model. Variables that significantly affected cashew supply included price of cashew, price of complementary crop, rural wage rate, government investment in agriculture and interest rate on agricultural loans. Rural wage rate had significant effect on cashew supply with coefficient of -0.38 at p<0.05. Government investment on agriculture with coefficient  of  0.06  had significant effect at p<0.05. Interest rate on agricultural loans, with coefficient of -0.44, had significant effect on cashew supply at p<0.05. Policy strategies to expand supply of cashew and enhance diversification to agro-industry included improved infrastructure that will ensure effective market linkages.

Key words: Diversification, agro-industry, processing, export, income, employment.