NEPC empowers 35 cocoa farmers with over 1,000 seedlings in Imo

The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) has empowered 35 cocoa farmers in Imo with 1,000 cocoa seedlings to boost production for export.

Handing over the seedlings to the farmers on Wednesday in Owerri, the Executive Director of the NEPC, Dr Ezra Yakusak said it was part of Government’s efforts to encourage farmers with incentives that would help grow the agricultural sector.

Represented at the occasion by the Imo State Coordinator of NEPC Mr. Anthony Ajuruchi, Yakusak said that the aim of the intervention was to enlist Imo on the map of cocoa exporters in Nigeria.

He advised the farmers to justify government’s efforts by replanting the seedlings and nurturing them to maturity for increased production and return on investment.

He said: “We purchased these seedlings from a very trusted source, the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN) to ensure we give the best to our farmers believing that they will justify the resources expended in this regard”.

The ED described Cocoa as a leading export product because the market is large and the players are large too.

He said: “we know that having invested in our farmers, in the next three to four years, the fruits of this labour will be plucked along the value chain”.

Speaking, CRIN’s Head of Station, Ibeku substation, Umuahia, Mr Olayinka Olaniyi, expressed hope that the seedlings, when matured for export, would grow Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product, impact livelihood of farmers, generate employment and feed Nigerians.

Also speaking the Chairman, Imo chapter of the Cocoa and Plantain Farmers Association of Nigeria, Mr Innocent Dike, thanked the Federal Government for thinking toward the farmers while calling for interventions in the areas of provision of arable farmland and public sensitisation for increased patronage.

A cocoa farmer, Mr Emmanuel Nwapa of the Oguta council area of Imo, called for more investments in cocoa farming, as according to him, it is both lucrative and healthy.

Nwapa, a former chairman of cocoa farmers in the state and owner of over 100 hectares of cocoa farm added that people of all age brackets and backgrounds can cultivate cocoa as it is neither time-consuming nor difficult to maintain.

Chief Economic Adviser to the Imo government, Prof. Kenneth Amaechi, represented by Mrs Jovita Agu, pledged the state government’s support through additional incentives.

The Special Adviser to Gov. Hope Uzodimma on Trade, Mr Edward Emereibe, urged the farmers to take advantage of the state’s industrial policy recently launched by the governor for processing and export of cocoa.

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