Ajasin varsity, national hub for cocoa rejuvenation, says vice chancellor

ADEKUNLE Ajasin University, Akungba (AAUA) Ondo State, has become a major partner in the Federal Government’s efforts to rejuvenate cocoa production and the training of a new generation of cocoa farmers in the country.

The vice chancellor of the university, Prof Igbekele Ajibefun who disclosed this to reporters said, “As a University that is genuinely concerned about providing solutions to contemporary constraints, especially solutions that can help to improve on the nation’s scorching economic condition, it is our resolve to continue to work out ways of making life better for the society. One of these efforts is the university’s cocoa intervention.

“We want to use the Faculty of Agriculture to rejuvenate cocoa production in Ondo state, and by extension, in Nigeria as a whole. The faculty has just established five hectares of cocoa and we have already acquired 10, 000 seedlings of cocoa. We have also transplanted them and the farm is already on. We are going to keep expanding.

“We also plan to establish demonstration farms in different parts of the state to teach farmers on cocoa production.”

Prof Ajibefun added that the institution has signed a Memoramdum of Understanding (MOU) with the Nigerian Export Promotion Council so that it would be used as an anchor institution for the development of cocoa value chain in the country.

He added, “As part of our plans towards cocoa revolution in the country, Adekunle Ajasin University has just signed a MOU with the Nigerian Export Promotion Council. Upon this development, the uni- versity is to be used as an anchor institution for the development of cocoa value chain in the country. It is a very big project.

“We have also started putting plans together to discuss with Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) international financiers and other organisations, including the government of the Netherlands.