The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Mohammad Abubakar has said that Nigeria will soon become the largest cocoa producer and return into exportation of the products.
Dr Abubakar stated this on Tuesday at the presentation of Cocoa Production Update by Cocoa Soil Group in Abuja.
The Minister explained that a lot of research by experts has gone into the cocoa production update manual on how to increase production.
His words: “Researchers have also gone to find out why cocoa production is not at utmost best here, because we have all it takes to be the best.
“From what has been carried out, we have identified the pitfalls, with this manual, we will return to exporting cocoa, it will become better than what we used to be.
“The pitfalls have been discovered, including the ease of production and planting which we will know what to do now”
Furthermore, the Minister said Nigeria is supposed to be the best cocoa producing country in the world, owing to the fact that it can be grown in many parts of the country.
“Now it is time for us to start exporting cocoa powder so that we can increase the value chain, income for the farmers”.
Dr Abubakar said there are programmes coming up that are in line with the cocoa industry, such as the special agro-industrial processing zone.
“We are seeing what is happening in other countries, and we will replicate it here. In the industry part, farmers will bring their raw materials to be processed, from there it will be exported,” the Minister said.
The Director, Federal Department of Agricultural Extension, Engr. Frank Kudla, in his address, said the government and partners were working towards the establishment of cocoa plantations in the non-forest area.
According to him, the program is led by the Sustainable Trade Initiative (STI), International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), in collaboration with Cocoa Research Institute (CRIN) in the target countries including, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Cameroon.
Doubling as the Chairman of Partnership for Development (P4D) Committee, Kudla, said the cocoa soil project is targeted at investing in research and development of cocoa and improving partnership for the programme.
He noted that the research and development component is geared towards acquiring more knowledge in cocoa management and nutrient improvement.
“Other aims of the project include developing cocoa yield validation in Nigeria, disseminate research findings to farmers,” he said.
He further stated that the project has so far trained about 126 detention agents and about 28,000 cocoa farmers have been reached.
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