Agricultural systems, such as agroforestry, that combine trees with livestock and crops on the same area of land, are particularly popular in developing countries. This is mainly because it enables small shareholder farmers, who have limited land available, to make the most of their resources. For example, they can plant grain and vegetable crops around trees that produce fruit, nuts, and wood, and the trees, in turn, produce shade for livestock that provides meat and milk. The Sustainable Socio-Economic Agri Forestry Association (SSEAFA) operates at a regional scale and aims at improving the livelihood of the rural population through the sustainable management and valuing of natural and cultural resources. SSEAFA operates in 7 communes in the regions of Alikadam, Lama and Thanchi. SSEAFA gathers 30 Cooperatives and more than 850 farmers of which 75% are women. Farmers are active in the production, processing, and trading of cashew nuts, coffee, mangos, gingers, turmeric, cassava, and vegetables. As a transversal activity, SSEAFA promotes the protection of the environment and environmental education. Cashew nut is a new crop for this area so we are trying to train them. We targeted to cultivate 2,500,000 cashew nuts and Macadamia nuts trees in 2500 acres of land next 2 years.The main activities will consist in: - Enhancing cashew production through plantations with selected varieties and improved management practices; - Improving cashew processing capacities; - Strengthening the capacities of the Association and its members, especially in terms of trading of agricultural products (higher quality, stronger networks) and agroforestry. Objectives of the project are the following: - To mitigate climate change: through (i) the development of cashew tree plantations that sequester carbon and (ii) the reduction of forest degradation and deforestation in the neighboring forests, by providing economic alternatives to non-sustainable practices (identified as such in the RPP: cropping of cotton, ginger, turmeric, sesame, overexploitation of NTFP); - To restore degraded soils: cashew trees have the capacity to achieve it in a cost- efficient way. It is worth noting that cashew planting was first introduced in Bangladesh for this purpose, not for the production of cashew nuts; - To increase incomes of the rural populations, particularly women. - To showcase the economic profitability and environmental sustainability of certified organic and fair-trade agriculture. Mitigation: Climate change mitigation will be achieved through: - the storage of carbon in the biomass and in the soils (350,478 teCO2for the lifetime of the project, deducting emissions due to fires), and - the reduction of emissions of the transformation process (21,051teCO2): -- extraction of cashew nut shell liquid, reducing the GHG emissions due to nutshell burning, -- drying of Cashew Nut by burning nutshells, no more by using butane. As the volume of processed raw nuts will increase, the project will generate around 5,000teCO2 (for transformation and transport, including export). These estimates do not take into account the effect on the protection of existing forests through a switch from activities that are drivers of deforestation and forest degradation (other types of agriculture, overexploitation of NTFP, etc.). Calculations are detailed in annex I. Cost-effectiveness The cost of mitigation (around 18$/teCO2 sequestered) is higher than the average carbon market price ($50 to $75/teCO2) The carbon revenue alone would probably not justify the development of such projects, but as cashew, Macadamia Nuts production is a profitable activity, investors will see carbon revenues as a means to ensure the higher profitability of their investments.
