Cashew trees harvest once a year. But for the farmers who tend them, life doesn't pause between seasons — and neither does Target Agriculture. That is why we started the Cashew Intercropping Project — one of the most grounded expressions of our organic cashew farm to table commitment.
Not as a business initiative but as a question we kept asking ourselves: what happens to our farmers when the cashew season ends? The answer led us to the fields of Dong Nai Province, and to an idea simple enough to work.
Target Agriculture's Cashew Intercropping Project gives farmers in Dong Nai year-round income — through organic farm to table practices, hands-on training, and a Fair Trade commitment.
For cashew farmers in Dong Nai Province, the harvest season brings a brief window of income and then a long wait until the next one. Once the last cashews are picked and the trees fall quiet, many farming families are left with idle land and uncertain earnings.
This is a reality Target Agriculture has seen firsthand. And it is one we chose not to ignore.
Between the cashew trees lies land that sits unused for most of the year. Our intercropping project was born from a straightforward question: what if that space could support something more?
By introducing complementary crops: chili, papaya, pineapple, and jackfruit — into our organic cashew plantation, we created a second income stream for local farmers without requiring new land or abandoning cashew cultivation.
👉Watch: Target Agriculture farmers harvesting chili from our Cashew Intercropping Project.
These crops were not chosen at random. Each was selected for how well it coexists with cashew trees: they thrive in the same tropical conditions, have shorter harvest cycles that fill the income gap between cashew seasons, and serve markets that local farmers already have access to. Chili and papaya can be harvested within months of planting — providing relatively quick returns while longer-cycle crops like jackfruit and pineapple build toward more substantial yields over time.
The same hands that tend the cashew trees now grow crops that can be harvested and sold throughout the year. For a farming family, the difference between one harvest a year and multiple income cycles is the difference between vulnerability and stability.
We made a deliberate choice early on: this project would not introduce chemical shortcuts. Instead, Target Agriculture's Field Officers work side by side with farmers — teaching them to produce organic compost from materials they already have: cow manure, coffee husk, and Trichoderma.
Each ingredient plays a specific role. Cow manure provides the nitrogen and organic matter that rebuilds soil structure. Coffee husk improves aeration and drainage, preventing the waterlogging that damages root systems. Trichoderma — a naturally occurring beneficial fungus — accelerates decomposition and actively suppresses soil-borne pathogens, reducing the risk of crop disease without any chemical input.
Together, these materials undergo a composting cycle of 100 to 120 days. Slow, intentional work — because healthy soil cannot be rushed. And healthy soil is the foundation everything else depends on.
This hands-on approach is what organic cashew farm to table truly means at the source — not a concept on a certificate, but daily work in the field.
The project site is combining active cashew plantation land with designated intercropping plots. The land has been cleared, prepared, and enriched. Seedlings are in. The soil once stretched thin by years of single-crop farming is being restored.
Progress came earlier than expected, a small but meaningful sign that both the land and the farmers are ready for what comes next.
Target Agriculture has carried Fair Trade certification from the beginning. But for us, fair trade has never been just a label on a package.
It is a Field Officer sitting with a farmer at the edge of a cashew orchard, explaining why the compost needs another month. It is a project that adds income without adding burden. It is what we mean when we say organic cashew farm to table, a chain that begins with people, not processes.
It is the belief which is held genuinely, not just stated that that a supply chain is only as strong as the people at its roots. This intercropping project is one expression of that belief. There will be more.
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