The cashew tree (Anacardium occidentale L.), of the Anacardiaceae family, is a woody species with multiple uses. In order to further research into varietal selection and vegetative propagation of the species, it is important to review the current state of knowledge on the subject and to understand the aspects that are still poorly understood. The purpose of this bibliographic review is to provide existing information on varietal improvement of the species in order to identify areas for research and development. The search engines Science Direct, Google Scholar, Scopus, Web of Sciences, and PubMed were used to search for peer-reviewed publications on the subject. Theses, dissertations, and books obtained from libraries were also consulted. A total of 78 articles and documents published between 1949 and 2024 were taken into account. It appears that varietal improvement of the cashew tree is much more concerned with the selection of high-performance cashew trees, grafted plants, and polyclonal seeds. Work has been carried out on both varietal selection and vegetative propagation. Previous work on selecting high-performance mother trees has taken into account criteria such as nut quality, productivity, and tree health, while neglecting the shape of the tree crown. The latter is an important criterion that promotes yield improvement. In order to improve the productivity of the species, further work needs to be undertaken on, among other things, varietal selection, grafting techniques, hybridization techniques, and graft propagation.