FG targets 500,000 tonnes of cocoa by 2015 — Adesina

The Federal Government of Nigeria plans to increase cocoa production from the present 300,000 tonnes to 500,000 tonnes by 2015, says Dr Akinwunmi Adesina, the Minister of for Agriculture and Rural Development. Adesina said this in Abuja during an interactive session with the reformed Cocoa Development committee. He said that with the release of eight hybrid breed cocoa species by the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN), the country could achieve the production of one million tonnes in subsequent years.
He said that the government had adopted a holistic approach toward improving cocoa production which included collaborating with the 22 cocoa producing state governments. In this regard, he said that efforts were ongoing to put in place a cocoa investment fund and create new financial instrument with the banks under the value chain system. The minister also said that strategies had been put in place for the replacement of old cocoa trees and also to create seedlings for nurseries across the cocoa producing states for easy access to farmers.
Adesina challenged the committee to work out modalities towards setting up a corporation to ensure that Nigeria’s cocoa industry was productive, efficient and competitive in the global market. He said that for easy implementation of programmes, the CBN had included cocoa in the 450-billion-dollar Nigerian Incentive Base Risk Sharing for Agricultural Lending.