Cash, cashews, and bi-products

cashew bi-product: juice!
Originally uploaded by parisdelhi

In the past Cotton was a source of cash for families in my area but with the fall in the sale price of raw cotton and the costliness of fertlizers and pesticides, cashew production is looking like a better source of cash income, the 100 kilo sack of raw cashews currently selling at almost 50 US$.

What is more, cashew apples, as seen in the adjacent photo, can be rather easily transformed into juice, chutney, jam, wine and liquor. For the moment some of the apples are eaten by children but many just rot in the field, becoming unused bi-products of cashew nut production. We're attemping to change that.

Another notable way folks are finding important sums of cash income to help out their families is through emigration to Nigeria, Ghana, the US, Europe, or elsewhere abroad.

Kofi Annan on migration to the developed world:
"the evidence on migration’s potential benefits is mounting. With their remittances reaching an estimated 167 billion dollars last year [2005], the amount of money migrants from the developing world send back to their families exceeds the total of all international aid combined. And money is far from being the whole story. Migrants also use their skills and know-how to transfer technology, capital, and institutional knowledge. They inspire new ways of thinking about social and political issues. They form a dynamic human link between cultures, economies, and societies. As a result, we are better positioned than ever to confront the challenges of migration, and seize its opportunities.” ADDRESS TO THE HIGH-LEVEL DIALOGUE OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY ON INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION AND DEVELOPMENT, NEW YORK, 14 SEPTEMBER 2006.