The aim of our study was to evaluate physical properties of cashew nuts from the three main production areas in Côte d'Ivoire namely Bondoukou, Dabakala and Mankono after 6 months of storage in identical conditions. Sample cashew nuts have been collected from farmers randomly selected in 20 localities far enough apart and also veritable purveyors of nuts. The physical traits of the raw cashew nuts and their different parts were evaluated by standard methods. As results, our data showed that despite the similar mass (in mean 6.23 g) of cashew nuts independently of the origin, the mass of the kernels nuts from Bondoukou (2.17 g) were significantly higher than those from Dabakala (1.90 g) and Mankono (1.81 g) respectively in contrast to the shell mass indicating the best kernels yield at Bondoukou. Nuts water content diminished slowly from nuts at Bondoukou (3.86%) but rapidly at Mankono (5.68%) after 6 months of storage. For the morphometric characteristics, our results revealed that the nuts from Bondoukou were statistically shorter but the kernels were thicker (15.1 ± 0.50 mm) versus and for Dabakala (11.4 ± 0.16 mm) and Mankono (11.2 ± 0.19 mm) respectively. There is a clear correlation between the arithmetic diameter of the kernels and their sphericity (r = 0.99). Concerning the technological properties, out-turn was average ranged from 44.09 to 46.69 with defective up to 18% at Dabakala. Taken together, our results suggested that the cashew nuts presented different physical properties according to each region of production in Côte d'Ivoire requiring appropriated agricultural practices.

Improving the quality of agricultural products depends largely on production process. In the absence of data on farmers' practices and the average quality of cashew nuts in Côte d'Ivoire, the present study aimed to provide a detailed description of the cashew nut production process. Thus, a survey was carried out in the zones of Mankono, Dabakala and Bondoukou among 386 cashew producers selected at random and interviewed using the face-to-face technique. The results revealed that intercropping was practiced in cashew cultivation (42% -62% of the producers), modern cultivation technique (72% -98% of the producers) but with rare use of selected seeds (8% -20% of the producers), labour/ha during nut harvesting (2.6 -12 workers/ha). Concerning the harvesting process, the time taken to pick the nuts varies from 1 to 14 days; the use of pesticides during harvesting (14% to 97% of the producers) and the absence of sorting of the nuts in 42% of the Mankono producers justify the probable conservation of defective and immature nuts in their production. For drying, the main dryers were the slatted table, the cemented surface and the tarpaulin, but other dryers were found such as the mosquito net, the propylene rice bag, the fertiliser bag and the black bag. Generally, the drying time of cashew nuts was very short: 2 days (43% -77% of the producers interviewed) but surprisingly 1 day (7% -27% of the producers interviewed). For Mankono, the use of chemicals was permanent during all stages of the cashew production process. Overall, the results suggest the need to assess the real impact of farmers' practices on the quality of cashew nuts from Côte d'Ivoire.