Before the coming of petroleum, the main stay of the economy of Nigeria were cocoa, palm oil, groundnut and rubber and the country was doing well. Cocoa beans brought joy to the lives of cocoa farmers in the Western Region of Nigeria. Cocoa beans did not bring joy only to the farmers, but also brought confidence to the government of western region of Nigeria. This enabled the government to embark on laudable programs which served the people well. One of such programs was the free education of the government which the beneficiaries still remember with appreciation.
The government was able to establish the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife), the first Television station in Africa (Western Nigeria Television), built the Cocoa House (the highest building in West Africa for a long time) at Ibadan, the Liberty Stadium and others.
The government of Western Nigeria at the time was able to achieve all this because they did not focus their attention solely on the grading fee accruable to government from grading cocoa beans, rather they empowered the farmers by helping them to enlarge their plantations. They did this by provision of Agricultural Extension workers, ensuring availability of affordable pesticides to treat the cocoa trees and pods, ensuring good quality cocoa for exportation and ensuring good guaranteed price for the farmers. There was also the Western Nigeria Marketing Board which provided good storage facilities.
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The farmers knew their income and wealth depended mainly on their productivity and not on manipulation by traders and middle men as it is this day. The government at the time was convinced that what needed to be done to collect more revenue from the farmers by way of grading their produce and personal tax was to encourage the farmers to produce more. The more tonnage a farmer produced, the more income he earned from which he could easily pay his personal tax and also making more tonnage available to be graded giving more revenue for government. The farmer that earned more was able to spend more thus boosting the economy. The relationship of the government and the farmers were symbiotic, a win-win situation.
That was then. There are many problems with the system. Nigeria was the second largest producer of cocoa in the world in the 1950s and 60s but is now the fourth. The active involvement of the governments, farmers, cooperative societies and Cocoa Association of Nigeria working in synergy is required for increased cocoa production in Nigeria to lift the country to be number one cocoa producer in the world.
Some of the problems are as follows:
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- The Aging of the Trees and Farmers: Now the cocoa trees are old and dying. Many of the farmers too are old and dying. The youths are not favourably disposed to farming and so there are not many young cocoa farmers. Not enough seedlings are being planted to replenish and increase the output. So the envisaged expansion of the plantations is not happening.
- Government Parasitic Relationship with Farmers: The government of the states in the South West do not operate symbiotic relationship with the farmers. They are not giving adequate help to the farmers. Their approach is to make more money from the cocoa trade by increasing the grading fee per metric tonne. As the total output of the farms has gone down, the state governments increased the grading fee per tonne to achieve revenue target.
- Inadequate use of needed chemicals due to high cost and scarcity when required.
To tackle the issue of increased production, it is necessary to consider the issues of land, seedlings, chemicals, harvesting and post-harvest handling. Some basic solutions are stated below and will be expanded on in follow up articles.
With the way the plantations are now, it requires urgent assistance from government to bring life back to cocoa farming. The required assistance from government should include intervention in the area of training, availability of subsidized and improved seedlings and availability of affordable chemicals. Government should provide enough Agricultural extension workers to train, supervise and give expert advice on the planting, nurturing, keeping of the farms, harvesting and post-harvest handling to boost output.
The cocoa plantations need to be expanded with higher yielding seedlings that can fruit in three to four years. The old ones took six to seven years to fruit. The improved seedlings are available at the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN). CRIN can produce enough seedlings for the farmers with financial assistance from the state governments. The research to achieve more improved seedlings than the present ones at CRIN can be fast tracked by the governments making funds available to the research institute.
Cocoa cultivation is not a tea party. It requires availability of land and dedication on the part of the farmers and government. There is the issue of pests and diseases which must be attended to promptly to maintain and also improve the health of the trees and their fruitfulness. The availability of the chemicals and accurate knowledge of their use should not be taken lightly. Wrong usage can result in being less effective up to devastating consequences on the crops.
The breaking of the pod to extract the pulp with the seeds (beans) in preparation for fermentation is still being done in the old, tedious and inefficient way on most farms. There are now mechanical equipment that make breaking of the pod much easier and more efficient without damage to the seeds. One of these simple machines operated by a man can do what twenty people will do with the old method of beating the pods with wood. A farmers’ cooperative can acquire one or more which can be moved about among members. They are quite portable.
State governments being joint beneficiaries of the output of the farms should create an enabling environment to make seedlings, chemicals and other farm inputs available to the farmers at affordable price. Government need not go into buying and selling of the chemicals but rather put up systems and structures that will make the chemicals available at the right time and at affordable rates to the farmers. These include encouraging the manufacture of the chemicals by local entrepreneurs.
Cocoa was and can still be a major source of income for this country. We need urgent steps now before we have to start from scratch again.
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