Cashew (Anacardium occidentale L.)is an important nut crop cultivated
in humid tropics of India, Brazil and African sub continent.
India is the largest producer, processor and consumer of cashew.
It was grown in an area 0.923 million ha with an annual production
of 0.613 million tons and productivity of only 695 kg/ha during
2008–2009. Since cashew is highly perennial and heterozygous an
improvementin this crop is slow. In order to achieve self sufficiency
in raw nut production and reduction in import of nuts, the crop
improvement programme needs to be strengthened with molecular
markers. Molecular markers are stable and are unaffected by the
environment. Hence markers have been used widely for estimation
of diversity, phylogenetic studies and mapping. Markers have been
employed in gene tagging and selection. Some of these could be
used for early progeny testing and to apply selection.