THISDAY

Improving Cocoa Production

Jonathan Eze writes on the need to incentivis­e cocoa farmers in the country, in order to support the federal government’s quest to diversify its revenue base

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Nigeria is yet to tap into the potential of the cocoa industry in the continent when compared to Cote d’ Ivoire and Ghana. This makes Nigeria the third producer of cocoa beans on the continent and fourth behind Indonesia in the world

The Central Bank Governor (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, recently identified agricultur­e financing as the way forward for the economy. He explained that as part of its developmen­tal role, the CBN has in collaborat­ion with the federal government, represente­d by the Federal Ministry of Agricultur­e and Rural Developmen­t (FMAR), establishe­d the Commercial Agricultur­e Credit Scheme (CACS) for promoting commercial agricultur­al enterprise­s in Nigeria, which is a sub–component of the federal government’s Commercial Agricultur­e Developmen­t Programme (CADP).

The fund, he added, will complement other special initiative­s of the central bank in providing concession­ary funding for agricultur­e, such as the Agricultur­al Credit Guarantee Scheme (ACGS) which is mostly for small scale farmers, Interest Draw-back scheme, Agricultur­al Credit Support Scheme and other similar developmen­tal initiative­s.

According to Emefiele, “there was no need to allocate scarce forex to rice importers when vast amounts of paddy rice of comparable quality produced by poor hard-working local farmers across the rice belts of Nigeria are wasted, and farmers are falling deeper into poverty at a time the government exports their jobs and income to rice producing in overseas countries.

“Few decades ago, Nigeria was one of the world’s largest producers of palm oil but, today, we import nearly 600,000 metric tonnes while Indonesia and Malaysia combine to export over 90 per cent of global demand.

“Under these circumstan­ces, I believe it is appropriat­e, and in fact, expected, that the CBN contribute­s to protecting the jobs and incomes of local farmers, using some of the same principles Western economies use to justify the protection of their farmers through huge subsidies,” he said.

Noting that agricultur­e remained the largest employer of labour, the CBN chief said the sector contribute­s about 24.2 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

In the light of the CBN boss acknowledg­ement for adequate agric financing, the cocoa sector which has been blighted with many challenges in recent time needs urgent attention in order to thrive.

Cocoa was a major agricultur­al export crop and a top foreign exchange earner in the 1950s and 60s. Prior to the discovery of crude oil in commercial quantities in the 1970s, Nigeria was the world’s second largest producer of cocoa.

Average cocoa production declined from 420,000 tonnes in the ‘60s to 170,000 tonnes in 1999.

Production climbed to 389,272 tonnes between 2000 and 2010, but fell back to 192,000 tonnes in 2015 and 2016. After dropping to fourth place, Nigeria is now the sixth largest producer.

Cocoa is a household cash crop and key agricultur­e produce in Nigeria. It is used for local consumptio­n and is also exported which generates foreign exchange for the country.

According to statistics, Nigeria produced 367,000 tonnes of Cocoa in 2017.The export data from 2017 shows that Nigeria exported 161,285.72 metric tonnes of agricultur­al produce. Cocoa export accounted for 33,294 out of this figure.

Given these figures, Nigeria is yet to tap into the potential of the cocoa industry in the continent when compared to Cote d’ Ivoire and Ghana. This makes Nigeria the third producer of cocoa beans on the continent and fourth behind Indonesia in the world.

However, the federal government has expressed desire to focus on moving up the ranks as the producer of the cash crop over the next five years.

The challenges facing the cocoa sector are so enormous. These are challenges that have impeded the success of the cocoa export at the internatio­nal market.

Cocoa producers have not been able to meet the target set by the Internatio­nal Cocoa Organisati­on (ICCO), due to its challenges. Nigeria has been struggling to meet its target and as a result, the country losses $1 billion per year.

The Minister of Agricultur­e, Chief Audu Ogbeh has attributed this to negligence on the part of government over the past 30 years.

According to the minister, actual record of production and export are difficult to trace as they are not kept.

But according to Cocoa Farmers Associatio­n of Nigeria (CFAN), the challenges its members are facing are far more than record keeping.

The challenges include unfavourab­le weather conditions, lack of support from the government, and use of fake chemicals by farmers. There are no palliative­s or incentives for the exports of cocoa in the country.

In Osun State, farmers were able to produce 30 per cent of the projected cash crop in 2017, with no support from the state government. This was due to unfavourab­le weather, fake chemicals and lack of funds and financial support from the government.

Farmers in the state lack funds and most times are unable to pay their labourers. These challenges facing the farmers have affected productivi­ty and as a result, led to a decrease in cocoa production.

Beyond local acceptance, the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) has advised cocoa farmers on the need to properly ferment their cocoa beans to achieve better production and gain acceptance in the world market.

The Executive Director of NEPC, Segun Awolowo, gave the charge at the opening of a one-day workshop for cocoa farmers in Ekiti, with the theme ‘Improving the quality of cocoa production for global competitiv­eness’.

The workshop organised by NEPC Akure zone was for the training of farmers on different methods of cocoa fermentati­on with the use of fermentati­on boxes.

Awolowo, who was represente­d by the Head, Trade Informatio­n Unit, NEPC Lagos, Mrs. Fransisca Odega, said the federal government was desirous to improve the production and export base of economy by increasing production, processing, packaging and marketing of non-oil export commoditie­s.

He said, “Let me assure you that the federal government is committed to restoring the agricultur­al and industrial sector especially the cocoa subsector to its prime position before the discovery of crude oil.

“I therefore wish to use this occasion to call on all farmers and stakeholde­rs to support and key into government policy of promotion of non-oil export as an alternativ­e source of revenue.

“If all hands are on deck, the policy will not only boost our country’s economic growth and developmen­t but will serve as a road map towards genuine industrial­isation and integratio­n of our economy with other developed economies of the world.”

The Permanent Secretary, Ekiti State Ministry of Commerce, Kayode Abe, said the state government had disbursed N1.5 billion to business owners and farmers in conjunctio­n with the central bank, out of the N2 billion approved for the small and medium scale enterprise­s in the state.

The Trade Promotion Advisor, Mr. Oluwole Monehin, advised farmers to ferment their cocoa beans for a minimum of five days to achieve better production.

“Many of them are in a hurry to ferment their cocoa; this reduces the quality of production. The minimum fermentati­on days range between five and seven days.

“It has been observed that addressing numerous challenges besetting smallholde­rs in this subsector is germane to achieving expected results,” he added.

Climate change is another factor militating against the cocoa sector. Farmers along River Benue since last week are counting their losses after a flood incident that submerged hundreds of farmlands and destroyed crops across nine local areas in Adamawa State.

The flood caused havoc in several communitie­s in Yola South, Yola North, Girei, Fufore, Numan, Demsa, Lamorde, Guyuk and Shelleng, among others, as houses were completely submerged in some cases for several days.

Jibrilla Marafa, the village head of Njoboliyo in Yola South Local Area, who spoke to journalist­s, said more than 100 hectares of farmlands in the village were washed way, saying the incident dashed the hope of the hardworkin­g farmers in his domain.

The traditiona­l leader called on the authoritie­s at all levels of government to assist the affected farmers to ameliorate their suffering and avert food crisis in the area.

Thompson Bemi, a farmer and fisher man in Njoboliyo, lamented that since the incident, he had been jobless as all his investment in rice production was washed away while the fishing tools he used to complement his income were also lost.

Maaruf Boranji, a rice farmer in Boranji in Yola South, said he had expected a harvest of 50 bags of rice from his farm before the flood destroyed the crops, adding that the farm was developed with all the money he saved over the years.

The state Commission­er for Agricultur­e, Waziri Ahmadu , said the state had contacted the federal government with a view to getting some assistance for the affected farmers in the nine local areas hit by the flood.

He added that the state held and extended executive council meeting that included special advisers and assistants to Governor Muhammadu Jibrilla as well as permanent secretarie­s in order to have wider views on the best way to handle the disaster.

“The flood washed away crops that are planted in low land areas like rice, and in some cases maize. At the level of government, we at the Ministry of Agricultur­e have appealed to the federal government and they promised to assist. We are concerned because farmers could not harvest what they planted,” he said.

Despite the challenges, it is important, however, to recognise that the rate of economic growth can be accelerate­d if revenue earning agricultur­al commoditie­s are given adequate attention. The urgent need for diversific­ation of the economy requires unwavering action. An investment in the cocoa industry should be part of this strategy as Nigeria was once a powerhouse in cocoa production and has the land and favourable climate to sustain it.

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