Evaluation of Potential Cashew Clones for Utilization in Ghana

Cashew (Anacardium occidentale L) is an important cash crop cultivated by about 3 million house-holds in Africa and serves as the livelihood for many African farmers, especially Ghana. Despite the importance of cashew as a commodity crop with increasing cultivation in Northern Ghana, the crop is challenged with problems such as, low and variable nut yields, low kernel out turn percen-tage and susceptibility to insect pests as a result of establishing cashew farms with unselected seeds. In order to address the challenges, the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana established a clonal evaluation trial in Northern Ghana (dry savanna vegetation) to indentify promising clones for subsequent distribution to cashew farmers as an interim measure. The trials consisted of ten different clones planted in Randomised Completed Block Design (RCBD) with four replicates. Pa-rameters evaluated were yield, yield efficiency, nut weight, percentage out turn and canopy area. Data analysis was performed with Gen Stat version 11.0 and the results revealed significant dif-ferences (P < 0.05) in the performance of the clones in all the parameters considered. Such differ-ences allowed the identification of promising clones over other clones tested. A few clones com-bined two or three traits (parameters) which were significantly different from the rest of th