Ile-Oluji charts new course for fading cocoa glory

It was designed to be part of the activities, marking the  first year coronation anniversary of the Jegun of Ile Oluji, Oba Oluwole Adetimehin, the community’s monarch, who ascended the throne, a year ago, following the demise of Oba Suulade Adedugbe, his predecessor.

But, the recently convened Cocoa Exhibition and Summit, held  in the community’s Town Hall, went  beyond that. Besides providing the opportunity for indigenes, friends and other well-wishers of the former President of  Chartered Insurance Institute of  Nigeria (CIIN)to celebrate with him and the community on the occasion,  it was also an avenue for a soul-searching and robust deliberation on the community’s fading economic mainstay, cocoa business.

Little wonder, the attendance included those who mattered in cocoa business, within and outside the community. The focus was the drive to return this predominantly farming community to its ‘cocoa winning ways’.

In the days of yore, Ile-Oluji Kingdom survived on cocoa business. For the average indigene of the community, situated  within Ile Oluji –Oke Igbo Local Government Council of  Ondo State, farming, especially in cocoa, had been their economic  mainstay and a venture that had brought them both fame and fortune. Community development projects were usually funded, voluntarily, then,by indigenes, mainly cocoa farmers, from the proceeds of cocoa, with the first secondary school in the community, Gboluji Grammar School,being an ample example of being a major beneficiary of such communal gesture.

But all these seem to be reclining into the past now. The indigenes of this community, whose economy once thrived on cocoa are fast dropping the cutlasses and the hoes for the elusive white collar jobs, and the monarch, whose family was once a contributor to this ‘cocoa glory’ too, believed the ugly trend must be halted. And organising such summit on cocoa would be one of those steps towards achieving that.

“At this time of economic recession, we believe cocoa business is capable of turning our economy in this community around. It could be a huge  foreign exchange earner for us, if well managed. And the aim of the summit was to bring  the good old days back to the consciousness of our people, discuss the opportunities and challenges of going back to the farm. We believe this is important if we were to achieve that much -taunted economic diversification,” argued the monarch,  while explaining the rationale behind the cocoa summit to  Nigerian Tribune.

Luckily,  the monarch’s  burden towards achieving this self-imposed economic task was made lighter by the disposition and  enthusiasm of his subjects.

For instance,  the seriousness with which this was taken was seen in the quality of attendance at the exhibition and symposium. With  stakeholders, including the Jegun – in – Council, Lojas (District Heads ), Baales ( Village and community Heads), farmers,produce buyers, the Federal Polytechnic, Ile-Oluji; government agencies and  banks, it was apparent that the community was sincere,this time around, about bringing back its glorious cocoa days.

The symposium, which was moderated by a cocoa expert,  Mr. Robo Adhuize, had in attendance, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Cocoa Products (Ile Oluji), manufacturers of Oluji Pure Cocoa beverage,  Pastor Akin Olusuyi; a farmer and retired senior educationist, Evangelist Olumide Akinsorotan and other critical stakeholders in the community’s cocoa business.

Exhibitions were also mounted by Cocoa Products (Ile-Oluji) Limited and some farm inputs marketing companies, to indicate the seriousness of the day.ile-oluji

 

According to the chairman of the Event Planning Committee, Honourable Henry  Akinsuroju, the committee could not have wished for less.“For instance,  Ile-Oluji, together with Idanre, a neighbouring community in Ondo State, produce over 40% of  the cocoa output of Ondo State which in turn accounts for over 40 % of Nigeria’s output of about 250,000 metric tonnes per annum. Besides, the cocoa beans produced in Ile Oluji are of  very high quality and they are  sought for internationally. We also have a cocoa processing industry here. So why are we no longer  getting it right in this area?  The focus of the summit is to find ways of  maximising Ile-Oluji Kingdom’s cocoa treasury and rejuvenate its  economy through a recourse to cocoa business,” the former state lawmaker stated.

According to him,  coming up with such programme had become imperative going by the dwindling fortunes of the community in a business that had once made names and fame for many indigenes of the community.

Commending the organisers for coming up with the initiative, one of the panelists, Pastor Julius Olusuyi, however believed that farming should be incentivised to make it attractive to the younger ones.

The chief executive officer of Cocoa Products Ltd, Ile Oluji, counseled that  governments, in Nigeria, should emulate other advanced economies, whose younger generation is moving to the farm,by providing basic amenities in the rural areas in the country.”Some countries today have been able to attract their  educated youths to the farm, through different strategies, one of which is education and enlightenment. There, they are open to training, they understand what a good agricultural practice is because of their education. But, it is not so in this area. Our youths are in the cities looking for white collar jobs that do not exist, and the reason is not far-fetched. You go to our farmsteads today, getting there on its own is a challenge, there are no roads, not to talk of social amenities in those areas. There is nothing there that would attract the youths. I can’t find an educated youth that would want to be in a community where he would not be able to use his GSM or would not be able to access the internet. So those are the basic things that we need to provide in the place and make the place more attractive.

“In most cases,  there are no accessible roads that lead to the farms here. So how would they go there? Agriculture should start with rural development,” Pastor Olusuyi argued.

He also expressed his reservations on the way farming is being practised in the country today.

“The cutlass and hoe method is not a thing that would attract the right calibre of youths to the farm. I know that during the IBB era,there was DFRRI (Directorate of Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure), but I don’t think it ever worked. Even if it worked, the impact was very minimal. So  such thing should be  revitalized. There should be a way of government coming up to open this virgin forest for these farmers and giving them input like  Chief Obafemi Awolowo did for the farm settlements of old. Those are the things that would attract the youths back to the farm,” he argued.

The Ile Oluji Cocoa Industry boss however believes for the  good old days to be brought back, government should find a way of organising the youths into cooperatives and form them into economic blocks, in order to empower them.

“Give them a parcel of land, clear it for them and allocate it to them. How many acres of land would a youth cultivate, using cutlass and hoe? I  have been cultivating about ten acres of land to plant cocoa in this town and it has taken me  over three months to clear that forest,  manually, and I’ve not finished it, because there are no modern methods available.

“These are some those things discouraging our youths from going to the farms. Unless we address those things, we’ll just be paying lip-service of attracting the youths to the farm, they won’t go. And if that youthful generation does not find farming attractive, I don’t see hope,” he concluded.

As a way of giving hope, therefore, the summit did not end without some resolutions, which members of the planning committee hoped to follow through in the coming months.

For instance, since the general  consensus was that cocoa had the potential to replace oil as the nation’s  major foreign exchange earner and economic mainstay, concerted efforts, they argued, must be made to maximise the benefits for Ile-Oluji Kingdom.

For instance, another of the resolutions was the setting up of a special committee, by the  community’s Jegun-in-Council to work out the modalities towards achieving these.

A consensus was also arrived at towards promoting the Ile-Oluji Chocolate bars of special quality, being produced in Ile-Oluji by the cocoa products (Ile-Oluji) limited, while also highlighting the positive health importance of Ile-Oluji pure cocoa, produced by same company.

Farmers in the  community were also advised to  upgrade their cocoa farms, live more on the land and stop selling their farmlands.

The need to revive the old cocoa cooperatives to enhance profitability and the general well-being of the community was also stressed, while governments, at all levels, as well as banks and other financial institutions, were urged  to be more committed to the development of cocoa farming.

While the panelists also called on timber loggers to stop destroying cocoa farms and the roads, the urgent need to resuscitate the Ile-Oluji Farm Settlement, established during Chief Obafemi Awolowo’sregime in the Western Region.

Expressing his delight at the success of the event, Oba Adetimehincalled on the youths  to join the  back to the farm  initiatives ofthe community.