As the leading cocoa producing state, Ondo State is to take the product to another level with the first ever Cocoa Convention. The Commissioner of Agriculture and Natural
Resources, Mr. Akin Akinnigbagbe spoke with the media on the initiative. Toluwabori Ojo was there.

ONDO state is one of the leading producers of cocoa in the country. What is your ministry doing to sustain the tempo?
As a matter of fact, we are the leading producer of cocoa and its export in the country. We still maintain that position till today. In the past and for a longer time, cocoa has sustained our economy. What we are trying to do is to take it to the next level and shift our attention to the latest technology that can assist our local farmer to get maximum yield every year.

We have provided millions of seedling for the farmers in the state at a highly subsidized rate so that the farmers can embark on commercial cocoa production, which at the long run will boost the economy of the state and at the same time assist the farmers to move to the next level in terms of good sales at the end of each year.

We are equally embarking on what l will call value addition to the business of cocoa. This will take the form of processing it home before selling into the international market. This will equally assist the farmers to get higher profit unlike in the past, when cocoa beans are exported directly to the international market; with the farmers has no control on the price.
To encourage farmers, inputs are given to them at a highly subsidized rate, we tried to maintain guaranteed minimum price and made sure that all that were produced by the farmers get to the right market. In the area of consumption, we are trying to encourage the farmers to go into the area of production.

A situation where our children will wake up from their bed and demand for cocoa beverages. If cocoa beans are processed locally before export, it will attract more foreign earnings and it will also increase the desire to consume it locally.

Another area we are looking into is the massive production of seedlings running into millions to farmers at a subsidized rate. We have to take this step in order to re-position cocoa towards a large commercial ventures that will attract the younger once to farming. We want to maintain the first position and make sure that a new pace is set in cocoa market both within and outside the country.
Transportation of cocoa beans from the farm to the nearest market has always been a problem to most farmers. Is there anything you are doing to solve this problem?
We have other agricultural produce like banana and fruits which are equally money spinning for the farmers. What we are trying to do is that we have re-furbished some of these agricultural equipment in preparation for opening most of the roads especially places where produce are very much. We want to open these farm roads so that farmers will have the opportunity to transport their goods to the nearest market without much hassle.

What are you doing at your end to make sure that younger people are attracted to the farm?
We have all encompassing empowerment programme that will attract younger generation into farming. That is why we are embarking on commercial agricultural farming where farmers were given incentive and large scale of land to farm particularly on cash crop.
We provide the seedling, farm inputs and all the encouragement that will encourage them on the farm. We let them realize that farming is no longer for the poor, but for those who want to be rich in a matter of few years. Farming is an assured economy unlike the oil where the price is not stable. This is a stable economy that has sustained us for a long time and it will always do. Anybody who is going into it will know that it actually worth it.

We are also going into extension services to sensitize people that this is an area you can go into and you will never remain the same again in your financing. We don’t want people to seat down and be looking for cheap money but to work and earn good money through their sweat. We want people to be economically viable and financially independent on their own so that nobody will enslave them.
In the days of old cocoa gestation period used to be between five to six years, but today due to latest research, the gestation period is between two and half to three years, you will be earning income. As a cocoa farmer whatever your colleagues are earning as office workers, you can have multiple folds at the end of each planning season, yet you will be an employer of labour and be more comfortable.
Apart from that you will have enough food to eat because there are other crops that you will grow with cocoa. It is no longer the type of farming that our four fathers did; it will be a mechanized farming.

Price control has always been the bane of an average cocoa farmer, is there anything you are doing along this line?
Cocoa is one of the major cash crops in the South West. We are talking about value addition in agriculture, if it is for the big merchant, we have not done anything for the farmers We want a situation where local industries can spring up in this area that we have highly concentrated raw material in terms of cocoa beans, so that the raw seed could be processed locally and the farmers can earn more income.

Plan is now at advanced stage where our children would be introduced to cocoa beverages in the state, if you know the medicinal aspect of cocoa, you will understand what is talking about. .This will give them vitality and good health. We are equally talking to some investors who will come and invest in small scale industries on cocoa, this at the long run will encourage local consumption and farmers will be able to bargain for a good price at the international market.

Ondo state is organising a cocoa convention next month, what informed this decision?

This is the first time in the history of the country when a state is organising such a convention. The idea behind this is that as a front runner in the business of cocoa and the largest producer in the country, we want to champion the crusade of operation local consumption of cocoa in the country. Secondly, we want to sensitise people that cocoa cannot be relegated to the background.

This is a crop that has sustained us for ages and is still sustaining us. Therefore we want to brain storm withal the stakeholders in this business and see how we can harness all our potentials together for the development of the state and that of the country at large. We know where we are coming from, we know where we are now and we know where we are going. We want to take cocoa to the next level in the state, and that is why we are organising a convention that will involve all the stakeholders next month.

We want to speak with one voice and tell the Federal Government that this is the crop that is sustaining us apart from oil, and that all hand must be on deck to see that every encouragement is giving to see that it is successive. Oil can dry up at any time but cocoa cannot. So we want to go all out to say that we need this crop to boost our economy and that all encouragement should be giving by the Federal Government to sustain this tempo.

Friday, 05 february 2010