ACCORDING to Adeola Adegoke, President of the Cocoa Farmers’ Association of Nigeria, the Federal Government has been losing about N60 billion each year due to its refusal to collect the Living Income Differential for cocoa farmers.
He revealed this on yesterday during a workshop in Abuja organized by Agricultural Policy Research in Africa in collaboration with the University of Ibadan’s Department of Agricultural Economics on the topic of “Cocoa Commercialization in Nigeria: Issues, Prospects, and Policy Requirements.”
According to him, the government should follow international best practices that promote cocoa production around the world.
LID is a cocoa pricing agreement that was initially implemented in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana to assist cocoa farmers in eradicating poverty by adding a premium to the market price.
Adegoke stated that the current foreign exchange deficit can only be remedied through the cocoa economy.
He said, all certifications, traceability of all cocoa farmers, the amount of hectares of land they farm, and the sort of cocoa crops they produce are required.
According to him, the association is set to guide the country back to its former glory as a cocoa-producing country.
He mentioned also that in the 1960s, Nigeria produced 590,000 metric tons of cocoa, making it the world’s second largest producer.
He said, “In Ghana today, each farmer collects $400 on each tonne of cocoa after the fall price. Same in Ivory Coast, and that’s why we believe that Nigeria must begin to collect Living Income Differential and refusal to collect it makes us lose N60bn annually.
“When the oil boom came, cocoa was relegated. In the last two months, cocoa has shown it is the highest to oil in terms of foreign exchange. It means the foreign exchange deficit we are experiencing can only be solved by cocoa economy. As at today, what cocoa is bringing to Nigeria is next to oil. When you look at the percentage, it shows the potentials.
Munil Danabundi, Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Agricultural Colleges, Universities, and Institutions of Agriculture, said that policies on production and the long-term viability of the cocoa economy must be backed by legislation, and that the issue with remarkable policies has been implementation.
He said, “Policies have been very good in this country but implementation has been something else and we have a lot of challenges in it. Cocoa farming is one of the sustainable investments that will give employment to the teeming Nigerian youths. We are not going to leave policies at the ministry level anymore without being backed by law.
“There are about 22 states in the country that can farm cocoa and the potentials are enormous for the country”, he said.
Dr Adeola Olajide, APRA’s Country Lead and Principal Investigator in Nigeria, said the government needed to develop a cocoa utilization and consumption policy, and that we needed to consume locally produced cocoa.
“We need processing zones and we need agricultural logistics and services for the cocoa sector. With the role that cocoa plays in income generation, it should be given priority,” she added.
