NEPC Empowers 35 Cocoa Farmers With Over 1,000 Seedlings
The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) has empowered 35 cocoa farmers in Imo with 1,025 cocoa seedlings to boost production for export.
Executive Director of the NEPC, Dr Ezra Yakusak, who handed over the seedlings to the farmers in Owerri, on Tuesday, said it was part of Government’s efforts to encourage them with incentives that would help grow the agricultural sector.
Yakusak, who was represented by NEPC’s Imo Coordinator, Mr Anthony Ajuruchi, said that the aim of the intervention was to enlist Imo on the map of cocoa exporters in Nigeria.
He advised the farmers to justify government’s efforts by replanting the seedlings and nurturing them to maturity for increased production and return on investment.
“We purchased these seedlings from a very trusted source, the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN) to ensure their we give the best to our farmers and we do hope that they will justify the resources expended in this regard.
“Cocoa is a leading export product because the market is large and the players are large too, therefore, we know that having invested in our farmers, in the next three to four years, the fruits of this labour will be plucked along the value chain,” he said.
Speaking, CRIN’s Head of Station, Ibeku substation, Umuahia, Mr Olayinka Olaniyi, expressed hope that the seedlings, when matured for export , would grow Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product, impact livelihood of farmers, generate employment and feed Nigerians.
Also, the Chairman, Imo chapter of the Cocoa and Plantain Farmers Association of Nigeria, Mr Innocent Dike, thanked the Federal Government for thinking toward the farmers while calling for interventions in the areas of provision of arable farmland and public sensitisation for increased patronage.
A cocoa farmer, Mr Emmanuel Nwapa of the Oguta council area of Imo, called for more investments in cocoa farming, as according to him, it is both lucrative and healthy.
Nwapa, a former chairman of cocoa farmers in the state and owner of over 100 hectares of cocoa farm, added that people of all age brackets and backgrounds could cultivate cocoa as it was neither time consuming nor difficult to maintain.
Chief Economic Adviser to the Imo government, Prof. Kenneth Amaechi, represented by Mrs Jovita Agu, pledged the state government’s support through additional incentives.
The Special Adviser to Gov. Hope Uzodimma on Trade, Mr Edward Emereibe, urged the farmers to take advantage of the state’s industrial policy recently launched by the governor for processing and export of cocoa.
NAN/Lateefah Ibrahim
