By IANS
Thiruvananthapuram : Billed as the first comprehensive book on cashew, “The World Cashew Industry – An Indian Perspective”, is due to hit the stands soon.
Written by an eminent cashew industrialist, J. Rajmohan Pillai, and his mother-in-law, P. Santha, an agriculture scientist who retired as principal scientist from Indian Council of Agricultural Research, the book looks deep into all the facets of cashew, which has been described as the poor man’s crop but a rich man’s food.
Former diplomat B.M.C. Nair released the book here Sunday night.
“The highlight of the book is that the principal author of this book, Pillai is the grandson of Vendor Krishna Pillai who is often known as the founding father of cashew trade in the country,” said Nair while releasing the book.
It was Pillai’s father K. Janardhan Pillai who piloted the family business for close to three decades till 1980 before branching out.
The book, priced at Rs.999, runs into 242 pages and is divided into two parts.
The first part looks into the development of the cashew industry in the country and also highlights its origin and world distribution.
An insight into the plant and its cultivation has also been looked at, besides production figures, demand and the trade.
There is a chapter that explains processing methods and nutritional highlights of the cashew nut.
The second part gives an in-depth statistical analysis of world cashew production, and provides results of a benchmark survey of countries involved in cashew production.
Former chief technical advisor to United Nations Development Programme and Food and Agriculture Organisation projects, K.V. Ahmed Bavappa has written the foreword.
He says the book reflects the experience, vision and concern about cashew and puts forward some practical options for action.
“This book will serve as guide to the different sectors of the cashew industry in optimising its production, processing, marketing and consumption,” writes Bavappa.
Pillai, more popularly known as the younger brother of “Biscuit King” and former chairman of Britannia Industries, late Rajan Pillai, told IANS that he has tried his best to discuss each activity of the cashew chain separately in the book.
“I have relied a great deal for my book on my association with the KJP Research Foundation (founded in the name of his late father), which deals mainly with cashew plantation development and product development. My work in Nabisco Commodities, a company headed by my late brother in joint venture with Nabisco of the US, helped me understand the international cashew market,” said Pillai.