ACi promotes the production of cashew by integrating cashew planting with beekeeping. This collaboration leads to improved yield and productivity of cashew trees, resulting in higher income for the farmer. A lucrative by-product from keeping bees is honey, which serves as an additional source of income, especially for women, who often take care of the hives. Research in Benin and Ghana showed that farmer income from honey, wax and propolis of 2 hives per hectare provides additional income of US $138 and US $208 per hectare per year respectively.

The African Cashew initiative (ACi) constitutes a new era of multi-stakeholder partnership in development cooperation. The initiative is jointly funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), as well as several private and public entities. With GIZ in the lead, Fairmatch Support (FMS) and TechnoServe (TNS) are implementing and following the project activities.