Nigerian cocoa farmers target to surpass Ivory coast, Ghana in production

Cocoa Farmers Association of Nigeria (CFAN), said it would surpass the production capacity of both Ivory Coast and Ghana in the next five years.

This will be done through a sustainable cocoa production to grow the nation’s foreign exchange earnings and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) respectively, CFAN said.

National President of CFAN, Comrade Adeola Adegoke, stated this on Tuesday at the launch of the Association’s office in Abuja.

Adegoke said activities to be performed to increase the production capacity will be the launch of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), training book for the smallholder cocoa farmers among others.

He said the target is to push the country’s cocoa production from the current 250,000 metric tons to 500,000 metric tons in the next two years with the best and finest cocoa premium quality in the world.

He stated that the association would set up a task force on monitoring and enforcement to ensure small holder farmers follow the required standard outline in the GAP book.

“This will be done particularly on the safe use and application of pesticide, child labour free, prevention of deforestation, putting traceability in place, having sustainable ecosystem and good quality cocoa in general”, he added.

Furthermore, he said cocoa would be produced in a sustainable path where the ecosystem would be sustainably and environmentally preserved.

The National President however said, smallholder cocoa farmers will be improved through the implementation of the collection of $400 per ton support aside the floor price being collected in Ivory Coast and Ghana respectively to support their smallholder cocoa farmers in those countries.

He said: “Our focus as a nation is to surpass the production and productivity capacity of both Ivory Coast and Ghana in the next five years through a sustainable cocoa production where we will have a more realistic largest cocoa pyramid in the world in Nigeria to grow our foreign exchange earnings and GDP respectively.

“We raised an alarm on the low quality of our cocoa beans and the need for our nation to brace up to change this narrative in order to prevent our cocoa from being rejected now and in the future or being sanctioned which could lead to the blockage of other opportunities that could improve the livelihood of our cocoa farmers in Nigeria.

“Against the above backdrop, hence the need for our association with other stakeholders to take a position among others to launch this GAP book in collaboration with Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN), the Ecosystem Based Adaptation for food Security Assembly Nigeria (EBAFOSA) for achieving transparency and the sustainability of our cocoa supply chain taking to cognizance the protection of our environment and our biodiversity sustainably.

“We are therefore willing and ready to partner with relevant cocoa stakeholders not only in Nigeria but in the cocoa world to make the GAP book available free of charge to our smallholder cocoa farmers in all the cocoa producing communities and cocoa producing states in Nigeria.

“The association would collaborate with cocoa stakeholders in conjunction with extension officers in tree crops and the private sector on how to train smallholder farmers on sustainable cocoa production”.

THE NATION

Tags: Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Ghana, cocoa