Cocoa farmers under the aegis of Cocoa Farmers Association of Nigeria (CFAN), have made known their plans to partner with critical stakeholders in the country to imoprove on the current less than five per cent to 30 per cent local consumption of cocoa through value addition before export.
National President of CFAN, Comrade Adeola Adegoke, made this known in Osogbo, the Osun State capital while speaking during the flagging-off the free distribution of the Cocoa GAP Hand Book to the small holder cocoa farmers in the state.
He said the partnership is important in order to generate more employment opportunities for the Nigerian youths, earn more foreign exchange, improve living income of farmers through the collection of better pricing, State incomes improvement via cocoa grading fees and sustainable cocoa production.
Adegoke also noted that the association intends to partner with the State Government, Royal fathers and other stakeholders in Osun State on the need to stop the destructive negative activities of miners across the cocoa plantations in the State.
“The reality of this threat by the miners in the state has reduced the state cocoa production drastically and made many of our cocoa farmers to be jobless as a result of the destruction of their cocoa farms in the state.
“The living income of our smallholder cocoa farmers have dropped in the state while many of our indigenous cocoa farmers are now being forced to migrate to other states for cocoa farming activities as tenant, due to the negative activities of these miners who invades cocoa farmers without cocoa farmers consent or permission,” he said.
Speaking further, he commended the good efforts of the Government of Osun State under the leadership of Adegboyega Oyetola , the Executive Governor of Osun State and the Commissioner of Agriculture for being there when it comes to the development of the cocoa value chain in the State.
He also appreciated them for providing a conducive environment for cocoa farmers to continue to grow in cocoa production as the third largest cocoa producing State in Nigeria.
Adegoke stated that the launching of the Cocoa GAP Handbook across the entire cocoa producing States and Osun State marks the 4th cocoa producing States done by the Association in Nigeria to achieve a sustainable cocoa production and good agricultural practices in the cocoa supply chain in response to high demand for the protection of human rights (stop child labour ) and the protection of the environment(stop deforestation and mining in our cocoa plantations especially in Osun State ) tagged due diligence ahead of other cocoa producing countries like Cote d’voire , Ghana and Cameroon in West Africa.
“Our target is to increase our production and productivity, quality assurance, high organic cocoa bean production, stop child labour and mining activities across our cocoa plantations, stop deforestation, train our cocoa farmers on responsible and acceptable international pesticides usage and application, traceability, climate change and nature based solutions with adaptation, MRLS.
“upscale our certification record and also enlighten our stakeholders on the need to practice cocoa agroforestry among others.
Adegoke further stated that Nigeria is the fourth – largest producer of cocoa worldwide covering a 6.5 per cent share of global production with about 340,000 MT, while Cote d’ivoire and Ghana, who is number one and two produce 2.2 million and 1.2million metric tonnes respectively.
“Nigeria average production is about 350kgm/400kgm per hectare while in Cote d’voire and Ghana, their average production is close to 700kgm per hectare.
However, he said that CFAN and other cocoa partners like Harvestfield Industries Limited (CFAN biggest partner) , Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN), EBAFOSA Nigeria, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development , Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment and others, are seriously working together to move the Nigeria cocoa supply chain forward sustainably .
“The protection of human rights and remediation and conserving our environment (ecosystem) in our cocoa communities are our collective top priority. This is in response to the EU due diligence framework and corporate responsibility.
“The Cocoa GAP Handbook has brought to fore the negative danger of child labour practices, deforestation activities, pesticides abuse, need for traceability and transparency in our supply chain and embrace climate-smart adaptation strategies provided by the Cocoa GAP Handbook.
Adegoke also reiterated that the Cocoa GAP Handbook is free to all the entire smallholder cocoa farmers of Nigeria and should not be sold.
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