Cashew: Casamance can become the laboratory of productive sovereignty (By Dr Ibrahima Gassama)

Integrated farms, nurseries, local processing: the challenge now is to convert the commercial performance of 2025 into jobs, farmer income and sustainable added value.

In Senegal, cashew nuts should no longer be considered as a simple cash crop intended for raw export. The 2025 campaign confirms that it has become a leading commercial asset: 118,914 tonnes of raw nuts were exported for an amount of 92 billion FCFA. But the major challenge now is to convert this performance into higher peasant income, rural jobs, industrial capacity and food sovereignty. This ambition is carried out on the ground by the Regional Consultation Framework for Actors in the Ziguinchor Cashew Industry (CROFAZ), under the direction of its president, Demba Diémé, who drives initiatives for structuring production, integrated farms and renewal of the productive base. This forum is part of highlighting the sector, in collaboration with President Demba Diémé, in order to raise awareness of its economic potential and contribute to advocacy for a more ambitious national strategy. I remain convinced that Casamance can become the laboratory of a model where the cashew nut would strengthen the country’s food sovereignty.

The real source is no longer only in the nut, but in the productive system

Our previous publications devoted to the sector converge towards a diagnosis: the potential of Senegalese cashew is limited less by the absence of a market than by the weakness of the productive base, the aging of the orchards, the insufficiency of technical supervision, the financing difficulties and, above all, the very low level of local processing. The ministry itself estimated in June 2026 that less than 3% of production was processed on site. In May 2025, the stated public objective was to transform at least 50% of production within five years; the government communication of June 2026 now sets a target of 30% over five years. Beyond the evolution of the target, the economic orientation is unambiguous: the next step must be that of local added value.

But this transformation cannot rely on factories alone; it requires regular raw materials, renewed orchards and producers less exposed to hazards. This is where the approach of the Regional Consultation Framework for Actors in the Ziguinchor Cashew Sector (CROFAZ) deserves particular attention.

According to information obtained from the President, CROFAZ is developing pilot projects in the region for integrated farms combining cashew nuts with other crops. The economic idea is solid and consists of no longer considering the cashew tree as an isolated monoculture, but as the backbone of a diversified peasant farm. As the orchard grows in production, other suitable crops can provide food and income, while the cashew nut provides agricultural cash income. Diversification thus reduces the household’s vulnerability to price shocks and climatic hazards.

Integrated farms and nurseries: two responses to the same risk

The second CROFAZ innovation is complementary to the first. In collaboration with partners WEECAP and PACAS, the organization supports the production of nurseries in several areas of Casamance in order to expand farmers’ access to young plants and contribute to the renewal of orchards. This point is strategic. A sector that wants to double its volumes, supply processing units and secure its exports cannot depend sustainably on aging plantations and low yields.

The “integrated farm-nursery” couple creates a sustainable production logic because the nursery reinforces long-term productive capital, while diversification improves income resilience. This is the articulation that a peasant economy needs: investing without sacrificing current food security with a view to future profitability.

This approach is directly in line with the country’s Food Sovereignty Strategy for the period 2025-2034. Agriculture and the agri-food industry are among Senegal’s growth drivers for 2050, and the country wants to simultaneously produce more, create jobs and decent incomes, reduce food dependence and better preserve its resources. The strategy also highlights that 909,000 households derive their income from the agricultural sector and that dependence on food imports constitutes a major economic vulnerability. In this context, a Casamance farm which produces both an exportable cash crop and food or complementary production is not a return to subsistence agriculture; it is a modern form of productive sovereignty.

From raw export to a much broader value chain

Business performance in 2025 should be seen as a starting point, not an end point. Today, the raw walnut leaves the country with most of its potential industrial value still to be created. Processing almonds involves sorting, shelling, drying, packaging, quality control, logistics and marketing. The cashew apple can be used to prepare juices, jams, vinegars or other food products. The hulls can, subject to appropriate equipment and standards, be used for energy or industrial purposes. Each additional step carried out in Senegal transforms an export flow into wages, margins for SMEs, tax revenue and industrial apprenticeship.

The effect on employment can be significant. The country has, according to data relayed in 2026 by institutional players in the sector, around 130,000 producers operating 300,000 hectares. An orchard renewal strategy creates needs for nurserymen, technicians, transporters and farm workers. The transformation creates industrial and semi-industrial jobs, particularly for women and young people. Integrated farms will also result in production, storage and marketing activities. The cashew nut can thus become the core of a rural economic ecosystem.

In terms of the trade balance, the potential gain is twofold. On the one hand, stronger and better valued production increases export revenues. On the other hand, the diversification of farms can contribute, on its scale, to increasing the local food supply and reducing certain household supply expenses. The macroeconomic effect then becomes more interesting because the sector brings foreign currency while strengthening the economic security of the territory.

CROFAZ and the leadership of Demba Diémé: territorial governance to be consolidated

This transformation finally requires local governance. CROFAZ is located precisely at the interface of producers, processors, communities, researchers and public authorities. Collaborations with university institutions and applied research projects show a desire to bring technical solutions closer to realities on the ground, particularly in terms of climate resilience, post-harvest losses, quality, storage and valorization of by-products.

In this dynamic, the leadership of Demba Diémé deserves to be particularly highlighted. At the head of CROFAZ, he helps to keep the sector in the economic debate, to bring the players together and to support concrete initiatives in favor of sustainable production. Its action in favor of integrated farms, nurseries, better financing, better structured marketing and the reduction of logistical constraints contributes to the construction of a more coherent vision of the value chain. The challenge now is to transform these initiatives and this advocacy into programs that can be reproduced on a large scale, with references to yield, costs, income, cultural practices and resilience that can be disseminated from village to village.

The State should support this logic with a coherent program of orchard renewal, agricultural advice, seasonal financing and investment, storage, certification and processing. The 90 billion FCFA of investments announced in 2026 for agropoles and the revival of cashew nuts in Casamance can contribute to the establishment of part of the industrial infrastructure. But the agropolis will never replace the orchard. Success will depend on the connection between the factory and the family farm, between the industrial zone and the nursery, between bank financing and the agricultural calendar.

Make cashew a policy of sovereignty, not just a commercial campaign

Senegal today has a clear market signal: demand exists and the sector has demonstrated its capacity to generate significant export revenue. It also has a national strategy which places agriculture, agri-food, employment and sovereignty at the heart of economic transformation. What is still missing is the systematic transition of these two realities towards a productive territorial architecture.

This is why the experience carried by CROFAZ deserves to be consolidated and evaluated rigorously. The integrated farm reduces producer risk; the nursery renews agricultural capital; local processing creates value and jobs; the agropole provides the infrastructure; research improves productivity and climate adaptation. Together, these elements can make Casamance not only the main basin of Senegalese cashews, but also a laboratory of the modern peasant economy. This economy feeds, exports, transforms, protects resources and retains more wealth on the territory.

Economic sovereignty is not only measured by what a country owns. It is measured by its capacity to transform its resources into sustainable income, jobs and collective security. For Senegal, the cashew offers precisely this possibility.

By Dr. Ibrahima GASSAMA, Economist, PhD

Contact: [email protected]