Springboard trains cocoa farmers on GAP to boost productivity
Springboard Nigeria has trained over 400 farmers in key cocoa producing Sou th-wes t states on good agricultural practices ( GAP) and seed multiplication techniques to boost production of the commodity in the country.
The two-day training which was held at the Federal College of Agriculture, Akure, entailed series of practical sessions and had players across the cocoa value chain in the South-west region in attendance.
Framers were taught on how to prepare nursery for seedlings, good agricultural practices before and after harvest of cocoa pods and farm management to boost their productivity as well as improve their livelihood.
“Farmers were taught on how to adopt good farming practices to increase their yield per hectare and produce quality cocoa beans to guarantee better income for themselves,” Lawrence Afere, founder and CEO of Springboard Nigeria, said during the training.
“P ra c t i c a l sessions were carried out on our demonstration farms by CRIN,
ADP and the Agricultural State Ministry for the farmers. We believe with this, their livelihood will be positively impacted on and farmers will be able to cultivate the much- needed new cocoa plantations,” Afere said.
He s t a ted t hat t he cultivation of cocoa was no longer profitable to farmers owing to their inability to increase their yield per hectare which has resulted in the country’s quality and quantity declining.
He stated that on this note, Springboard was organising the training workshop for cocoa farmers in the region to provide the needed support to help boost their productivity and quality of their cocoa beans as well as support them with finance and other inputs.
“We want to help cocoa farmers easily access finance, inputs and other training supports that will help to increase their production and yield per hectare. Cocoa production in Nigeria is declining and the quality is getting poor and that is why we are doing this workshop so that farmers will be trained,” he said.
He added that cocoa f a rmers f rom over 20 communities from Ondo and Ekiti states were present at the training and that Springboard would not just stop at the training but would follow up on the farmers present as well as monitor their farming activities.
Speaking on the changing climate pattern, he called on farmers to adopt tree planting measures to mitigate the impact of climate change on their cocoa plantations.
Kayode Adejobi, from the agronomy section, Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria ( CRIN), said that Nigeria would only increase its cocoa production also regain its status of number two in the global cocoa rakings when farmers start replacing old cocoa trees with improved hybrid varieties.
Adejobi stated that cocoa farmers were the most important player in the value chain that must get things right to grow the Nigerian cocoa industry.
He added that it was the cocoa farmers that needed to get it right because they had the skills and the knowledge they gained from the training.
He stated that cocoa some farmers in the country do not currently have access to improved hybrid varieties such as CRIN Tc -1 to CRIN Tc- 8 owing to inadequate information, and highlighted the importance of the training on nursery preparation techniques with the right hybrid varieties.
He called on farmers to buy cocoa pods from CRIN to use in raising their nurseries for seedlings, saying that the research institute had new hybrid varieties for them.
Speaking on what the Ondo state government was doing to support cocoa farmers in the state, Omogunwa M.O, project manager – tree crops unit, representing Adegboyega Adefarat i , Ondo State commissioner of Agriculture, said the state was ensuring that farmers had access to improved seed varieties through the department of tree crop at the ministry.
She stated that extension workers were also provided for cocoa farmers in the state to train them on new technologies that would boost their productivity.
Segun Ojo, a cocoa farmer from Ekiti who was a participant at the training, appreciated Springboard for the capacity building workshop for farmers.
Ojo said he would ensure he carried out all he had learnt from the organisers on his farm while calling on the government to support farmers with cheap finance and access to land to expand their production areas.
Springboard Nigeria is a network of cocoa, rice and plantain farmers in Nigeria with over 3000 members. The goal of the organisation is to empower smallholder farmers in Nigeria to become p ro s p e rous and earn sustainable livelihoods and reach a target of 100,000 smallholder farmers in Nigeria.