Coming Up Cashew

It’s a hot afternoon in 2022 in Kenya’s Kilifi County. Kamini Menon (the Country Director for the Empowering Farmers Foundation (EFF) at the time) is leading the innocent foundation team to a meeting of farming families who are thinking of reviving their cashew orchards.  

“The cashew industry used to thrive in this county in the ‘70s,” she says, stepping over a foot-long millipede that’s curled up in the heat without missing a beat. “But the trees got older, and then they got powdery mildew and mealy worm. Sick trees don’t produce as much so gradually people gave up on their cashews. Then we came along this year to help get those trees healthy again and now they’re seeing results on the farm, so they trust us.”  

As processors and cooperatives shut down in the ‘80s, a whole stream of income for smallholder farmers dried up too. Understandably, farmers felt left behind so, as Kamini says, “that trust is important.”  

We arrive at a small building among the orchards. The EFF are presenting their plans and trying to get a feel for the farmers’ interest in them. We meet with Josephine, a grandmother and farmer who doesn’t have a lot of time to spare for this – so Kamini cuts to the chase and asks her what she’d do with extra income from cashew. Josephine doesn’t hesitate: “I’d fix the barn roof, pay medical bills and send my grandchildren to another school, a better one.” Kamini listens, nods, and makes a note. 

Nearly two years later, the innocent foundation has supported the EFF to realise their plans. Kamini has become EFF CEO and the project has loads of farmer support. It’s easy to see why – she listens, so when she talks people listen back.  

3,300 farmers have signed up to the project and opened their farm gates for tree treatments. They’ve planted over 100,000 new high-yield variety cashew trees, most of which will reach maturity over the course of the project. For the first time since the ‘80s, there’s a functioning cashew farmer co-operative that buys cashew for higher prices than the middlemen. In 2023, the co-op linked up with a state-of-the-art new processing factory that’s giving them a hand with things like offtake arrangements, technical capacity building, and operating capital. And they’ve already got to work on their next big step–encouraging farmers to plant finger millet in between the cashew trees. Back in 2022, Kamini explained that ‘millet’s really good for you, especially if you’re pregnant, but people have stopped cultivating it.’ Her team have painted murals, run cooking demonstrations and even put out a radio jingle to get people growing millet again. And it turns out smallholders trust Kamini on this too.  

For more on the Empowering Farmers Foundation head to www.eff.dev 

To celebrate the innocent foundation’s 20th birthday, we’re looking back at all the stories—big and small—that add up to our great big dream of a world without hunger.  

From one good idea, the Empowering Farmers Foundation has gone on to support 3,300 farmers and families to grow better, sell more, and eat well, and every one counts. Find out more about our #EveryOneCounts campaign, www.innocentfoundation.org/every-one-counts