The first five world cocoa producers led by Cote d’Ivoire had better begin to expect a shaking in the table of ranking producers of that product. This is because Nigeria is rearing to overtake from its current sixth position on that table.
Farmers in the eight states in the southwest and southsouth regions of the country where cocoa is grown are rolling up their sleeves to give those countries a fight. It will be recalled that cocoa revenue ran the economy of the western region (now the southwest states and Edo and Delta states) during the first republic. The tell tale stands in the structure of the 25-storey cocoa house in Ibadan, then capital of the region, a towering structure in the town till date. The states producing cocoa now are Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Ondo, Ekiti, Cross River, Akwa Ibon and Delta.
Recently, governors in the southwest states met and resolved to restore agriculture in the geopolitical zone. Cultivation of cocoa is one of the crops, aside from food crops, they are targeting to give a boost.
Now Cross River State is joining the league of challengers. The state government has initiated plans to establish new Cocoa farm estates in six Local Government Areas of the State. The plan was made public during a critical stakeholder’s engagement meeting held in Calabar under the auspices of the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation Development.
Speaking at the forum, Johnson Andiambey Ebokpo, the Commissioner for Agriculture and Irrigation Development, said that there is ongoing process of engaging stakeholders to acquire land for the establishment of Cocoa estates in Akamkpa, Akpabuyo, Bekwara, Odukpani, Obubra, and Ikom Local Government Areas.
Ebokpo stressed the importance of stakeholders involvement to ensure the success of this initiative, outlining criteria such as number of hectares, land suitability (soil analysis ) which had been in the works for quite some time as well as community engagements which is at the forefront of Governor Out’s people first agenda.
He emphasized that the project would adopt a complete public-private partnership model where the Government in collaboration with the communities facilitate the development of the new estates.
