For farmers like Mary Bakari in Matuga, the seedlings are only the start of the journey.
"We have planted, but what now? Buyers still offer peanuts. We need help beyond planting, training, market access, and guaranteed prices. Otherwise, we are stuck," Bakari said.
In Lamu, Governor Issa Timamy has secured a UK-funded Sustainable Urban Economic Development (SUED) project to establish a modern processing factory to create over 200 jobs.
Equatorial Nut Processors will manage the plant, targeting 142 tonnes of raw nuts in its first year, scaling to 3,500 tonnes in five years. The constructor will be on the site in the coming months.
"This factory brings real hope," said Mohammed Kombo, a Hindi farmer, where the factory will be established, and added that if the government does not intervene, brokers will continue to exploit the farmers.
Currently, farm-gate prices hover around a dismal range of between sh30 and 50 per kilogram, or worse, pushing many farmers to abandon the crop altogether.
Sector value has crashed from sh904 million in 2014 to just sh451 million in 2023, according to AFA statistics. AFA is pushing to bridge knowledge gaps through capacity-building initiatives.
"We are training county extension officers and farmers in Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and climate-smart methods," Linyiru disclosed.
AFA is also focusing on long-term sustainability by training local nursery operators to produce commercial-grade seedlings.
Senile trees, according to Linyiru, dominate current orchards, while young trees are years away from yielding. Patience and long-term investment are critical, Linyiru emphasised.
The task force that recommended the ban proposed the creation of a dedicated regulatory authority, guaranteed minimum prices, cooperative revival, and farmer subsidies.
Fifteen years later, these proposals remain gathering dust on government shelves.
Industry watchers warn that unless aggressive measures, ranging from massive extension services to orchard rehabilitation, establishment of aggregation centres, and imposition of minimum farm-gate prices, are urgently instituted, Kenya's cashew legacy could be lost forever.
For Kenya's coastal farmers, this is no longer just a revival but an existential battle to reclaim their economic future.
Lamu's Lake Kenyatta Cooperative Society chairman, David Njuguna, said despite the good harvest this season due to good weather, farmers have not been able to sell their cashew nuts.
He says that there are no active buying channels, and organised groups that previously coordinated sales and negotiated with processors seem to have collapsed.
"In the past, we had farmer groups that engaged directly with processors such as Equatorial Nuts. These processors are still operational, but there appears to be no structured engagement with farmers this season," Njuguna said.