Agriculture with Jimoh

Cocoa farmers in Osun are to get 150,000 cocoa seedlings at affordable and subsidised rates this season from the local cocoa farmers association. Mr Moses Oladipupo, the state Chairman of Cocoa Farmers Association of Nigeria (CFAN), disclosed this on Tuesday in Osogbo, said that the seedlings would be provided by CFAN. Oladipupo said that farmers in Osun were told some months ago that Federal Government would provide them with five million cocoa seedlings, an information which turned out to be untrue. He reiterated that the association was making the cocoa seedling available to farmers at subsidised rates. Oladipupo said the provision of the seedlings in Osun was also through his personal efforts and resources. He said the gesture was to encourage cocoa farmers who were getting frustrated because of the high cost and inability to get seedlings and chemicals. Oladipupo said the state government also promised to provide them with cocoa seedlings, but the...

The National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC) Director-General, Dr. Philips Olusegun Ojo has urged the Oyo State government and the southwest to turn around the present low level seed production, which is among the lowest in the country. Placing the exalted state of the southwest in the days late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Cocoa House and the like and the low level of the zone, in terms seeds production today set a solution-searching tone during the meeting of the Director-General, Dr. Ojo and the Oyo State Governor, Ajimobi, who was represented by the State Commissioner for Agriculture, Barr. Oyewole Oyewumi. The Commissioner said the NASC DG’s challenge is obvious, and has to do with the very low level seed production that has lingered over time given clear statistics presented by the Seeds Council. To face the issues, Oyewumi revealed that State government has set up the State Seed Coordinating Committee, which is to regulate and coordinate seed production and distribution in O...

Cocoa grinders in Cote d’Ivoire are holding off on newinvestments after military and social unrest this month,potentially denting government plans to boost processing of the commodity in the world’s top Cote d’Ivoire has emerged from a 2002- 011 political crisis as one of the world’s fastest growing economies, attracting foreign investment into everything from the cocoa industry to breweries and shopping malls. But soldiers, mostly former rebels, seized control of the country’s second biggest city, Bouake, this month, sparking a series of smaller mutinies across Cote d’Ivoire t and exposing cracks in its post-war success story. The revolts coincided with a strike by civil servants demanding around $400 million in back wages. “The security, social and political situation these last weeks has indeed opened our eyes to the fact that there is still instability and a lack of visibility in the short to mid-term,” the dire...

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, has described as embarrassing the downgrade of Nigeria in the global cocoa business. To revive the industry, however, the Minister has disclosed that a re-launch will be done early this year as part of activities to bring cocoa back to public consciousness. Moreover, he has said that millions of cocoa trees will have to be planted, beginning this year.   “This year’s activity,” Chief Ogbeh noted, will start with “the relaunch of cocoa.” In his words: “It is an embarrassment that Nigeria fell to the seventh place. We are re-launching cocoa. We are targeting 15 to 20 million trees a year and we are rehabilitating the existing ones and improving upon agronomic practices, and processing and all the value chains that need to take us to number one.” Despite hurdles, agric fared well in 2016, kept faith on rice – Ogbeh -            As he inaugurates co...