Cocoa and Plantain Farmers Association of Nigeria, (CPFAN), in collaboration with Anambra State Ministry of Agriculture has flagged off cocoa and plantain farming in the state.
The State Commissioner for Agriculture, Hon Nnamdi Onukwuba, while performing the launching ceremony at the Ministry’s premises in Awka, said the state government was delighted to join the league of cocoa producers in the nation.
“It would soon commence distribution of seedlings by way of input support to farmers to boost the production of cocoa.”
The Commissioner said government was ready to provide loans and other forms of credit facilities through for them to expand the programme to achieve the desired result.
He urged the farmers to form co operatives to be more organized to access the facilities and to share their common knowledge about the production.
The National President of the Association, Chief Ayodele Ojo, said he was optimistic that in two years period the state would be a major grower of the product.
While urging the people of south east to be ready to grow the products, he said time has come for diversification of the nation’s economy.
In his remarks, the South East Zonal Vice President of the Association, Prince Samuel Dickson, outline benefits desirable from cocoa farming to include job opportunities for teeming youths, increase in internally generated revenue and less dependence on federal allocation.
“We have well developed three major cocoa nursery sites where seedlings are being breed. From there, we have over 500,000 hybrids of seedlings.
“Our seedlings are having high pest resistance quality which made its demand high for farmers within and outside our location,” Dickson said.
The Director,Technical Services, Ministry of Agriculture, Mr. Emeka Okoli, highlighted abundant wealth creation opportunities existing in cocoa farming value chain and called on people of the state to key into the project.
