Cocoa and Cashew Get Budget (2026–27) Boost

News: The Union Budget 2026-27 has also proposed a dedicated programme for Indian cashew and cocoa.

About Cocoa

About	Cocoa is an important commercial plantation crop, native to Amazon basin of South America.
Zone	Cocoa grows best in tropical regions between 20° North and 20° South latitude.
Altitude	Cocoa is grown from sea level up to about 500 metres above sea level.
Rainfall	Minimum rainfall: 90–100 mm per month
Temperature	Cocoa grows well within a temperature range of 15°C to 39°C. Optimum temperature: Around 25°C.
Soil	Cocoa grows well in clay loam and sandy loam soils. Cocoa can grow in soils with a pH range of 4.5 to 8.0, with an optimum range of 6.5 to 7.0. Cocoa requires deep and well-drained soil for proper root development.
Shed Requirement	Cocoa plants require shade during the early stages of growth. Young cocoa plants grow best with about 50% sunlight.

Cocoa cultivating states in India: Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh, where it is grown mostly as an intercrop with coconut and arecanut.
Production in India: Cocoa production in India is currently estimated at around 25,000 to 30,000 tonnes per year, which is much lower than the domestic demand of about 1.5 lakh tonnes.
Top export destinations of India: UAE, Netherlands, Japan, Saudi Arabia.
Main cocoa producing countries: Ivory Coast, Ghana, Indonesia, Brazil, Nigeria, Cameroon and Malaysia.

About	Cashew is a cash crop, native to Brazil in Latin America.
Soil	Cashew grows best in well-drained, deep sandy loam soils, though all soils ranging from sandy to laterite are also suitable.
Temperature & Humidity	20 to 38 degree celsius, with relative humidity between 60% and 95%. Extremely low temperatures and frost are harmful to cashew cultivation.
Altitude	It grows from sea level to an altitude of 1,000 m.
Rainfall	2000 to 3500 mm

Cashew Producing states in India: Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and West Bengal.
Emerging producing states: North-Eastern states and parts of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.
Production: India stands as the second largest producer of cashew in the world.
- India’s annual raw cashew nut (RCN) production is around 0.7 million tonnes (0.7 mt).
Main Cashew producing countries: India, Vietnam, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Tanzania, Benin, Brazil and other countries in East and West Central Africa and South East Asia.
Production: World production of cashews currently ranges between 720,000 and 790,000 metric tons (kernel basis) per year.
- India, with 170,000-195,000 MT of annual production, ranks first, followed by Côte d’Ivoire, Vietnam and Tanzania averaging 149,000; 82,000 and 53,000 MT, respectively.