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LequteMan
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The Nigerian government in a bid to boost cocoa production and the cocoa industry in the country, is encouraging farmers to grow the crop by issuing out high-yield seeds and fertilizers at subsidized rates, just as cocoa prices begin to flourish.
Excerpts from Reuters:
College graduate Omatayo Adeniyi stands in a humid tropical forest of southwest Nigeria and explains why he chose cocoa farming over a white collar job in the city.
"There is money in the ground. The future is bright. I hope to make one tonne of cocoa by next year," he says from his farm in Ondo State.
Nigeria currently grows cocoa on less than a quarter of the 3 million hectares of land suitable to produce the beans, and the government is encouraging farmers to expand to the uncultivated savannah grassland.
With the materials the state provides, crops are flourishing. Adeniyi received his high-yield disease-resistant seeds from government two years ago and planted 800 seedlings of which 700 survived - much more than usual. The new trees flower within 18-24 months instead of 3-5 years.
Farmers now bear the price risk themselves but have seen cocoa prices swing from a low of less than $1,000 per tonne in 1986 to a peak of $3,500 per tonne in 2011. This month cocoa is trading around $3,252 per tonne.
Agriculture Minister Akinwumi Adesina aims to boost production to 1 million tonnes a year by 2018 - on a par with current number two global producer Ghana and approaching top grower Ivory Coast's projected 1.8 million tonnes for this year.
Nigeria says it's already on track to produce 500,000 tonnes of cocoa next year, double what it grew in 2012, and though analysts say that target may be optimistic, it is clear that no other cocoa growing country is boosting production as fast.
Output from Africa's top four growers - Ivory Coast, Ghana, Indonesia and Nigeria - which makes up over 70 percent of global production, is projected to rise in 2013/14 after staying flat for two years, according to Africa's Ecobank
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#Cocoa #Nigeria #Ghana #Agriculture
Excerpts from Reuters:
College graduate Omatayo Adeniyi stands in a humid tropical forest of southwest Nigeria and explains why he chose cocoa farming over a white collar job in the city.
"There is money in the ground. The future is bright. I hope to make one tonne of cocoa by next year," he says from his farm in Ondo State.
Nigeria currently grows cocoa on less than a quarter of the 3 million hectares of land suitable to produce the beans, and the government is encouraging farmers to expand to the uncultivated savannah grassland.
With the materials the state provides, crops are flourishing. Adeniyi received his high-yield disease-resistant seeds from government two years ago and planted 800 seedlings of which 700 survived - much more than usual. The new trees flower within 18-24 months instead of 3-5 years.
Farmers now bear the price risk themselves but have seen cocoa prices swing from a low of less than $1,000 per tonne in 1986 to a peak of $3,500 per tonne in 2011. This month cocoa is trading around $3,252 per tonne.
Agriculture Minister Akinwumi Adesina aims to boost production to 1 million tonnes a year by 2018 - on a par with current number two global producer Ghana and approaching top grower Ivory Coast's projected 1.8 million tonnes for this year.
Nigeria says it's already on track to produce 500,000 tonnes of cocoa next year, double what it grew in 2012, and though analysts say that target may be optimistic, it is clear that no other cocoa growing country is boosting production as fast.
Output from Africa's top four growers - Ivory Coast, Ghana, Indonesia and Nigeria - which makes up over 70 percent of global production, is projected to rise in 2013/14 after staying flat for two years, according to Africa's Ecobank
click here to read more
#Cocoa #Nigeria #Ghana #Agriculture
