Boosting Nigeria’s cocoa yield through rehabilitation of old trees

In the 1960s and 70s, Nigeria was a major cocoa producer and supplied most of the world’s demand.

Cocoa was a major revenue and foreign exchange earner for Nigeria and provided millions of jobs for the people, especially those in the southwest region.

Several years down the line, the once major cocoa producer now lags behind Ivory Coast, Ghana and Indonesia in cocoa production. The reasons for this are not far-fetched. Analysts finger bad weather, old trees that have not been rehabilitated, and lack of improved seedlings (planting materials) as major reasons for Nigeria’s loss of ‘cocoa power’ in the global market. In fact, Nigeria was unable to supply large quantity of cocoa to the world in 2015 despite rise in the prices of ICE and Liffe cocoa beans.

However, succour has finally come to Africa’s biggest economy in the area of planting materials, as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) commences the training of major service providers in key cocoa producing states on vegetative propagation of the crop.

Hence the timely and strategic invention of USAID|Nigeria in the production end of the cocoa value chain through the ‘Training of Trainers on Cocoa rehabilitation and Planting Materials’ aimed at achieving cocoa revolution in the country.

Daniel Adewale, lead facilitator at the training from the Department of Crop Science and Horticulture, Federal University of Oye–Ekiti, said, “Nigeria is no longer getting full economic benefits from growing cocoa because most cocoa fields are old and small as well as the poor genetic qualities of the planting materials used.”

The implication of this is that the cultivation of cocoa is no longer a profitable crop for many farmers and as a result of this, the nation’s quantity and quality of cocoa is declining, Adewale said.

The need to urgently address this decline is why USAID|Nigeria is intervening through its Nigeria Expanded Trade and Transport (NEXTT) project to build the capacity of service providers and extension workers to help farmers rehabilitate old cocoa trees and cultivate new clonal seedling gardens -using budwood- for production of more high-yielding cocoa seedlings.

Speaking on the need to move Nigeria cocoa’s industry from the 19th century to the 21st century, Remi Osijo from the USAID|Nigeria NEXTT project, identified the massive investment opportunities and its inherent potential for the Nigerian economy if young entrepreneurial cocoa farmers are ‘supported with renovation and expansion of atomised farms to 3-5 hectares, for higher yields of over one ton/hectare.’

“There is an urgent need to encourage investments in commercial cultivation of nuclear cocoa estates not just for increased productivity but because of the commercial scale of the operations and services that will be rendered. This will ultimately address quality issues of Nigeria’s cocoa beans as fermentation, drying, ware housing and branding will be done appropriately and these services will certainly be extended to the atomised/local farmers around the estate,” Osijo said.

“Just imagine the scale and number of jobs that will be created from this venture. Nigeria will be earning more revenue as premium price will certainly be paid for such standardised cocoa beans all over the world” Osijo adds.     

Nigeria currently produces less than 500kg of dry bean per hectare.

According to Adewale, this very low level of cocoa production has made it necessary to change protocol of production. Vegetative propagation is the best way to ensure increased production of high quality cocoa pods or beans instead of seedling cultivation because it enables multiplicity and commercialisation of high-yielding strains, he said.

The lead facilitator explained that vegetative propagation makes it possible to multiply desired cocoa varieties, thereby ensuring ‘quick replication of highly productive planting materials, production of uniform trees with shortened gestation period and cocoa plants are protected against diseases.’

Cocoa industry crisis

The country has fallen from the world leading producer of cocoa in the 60’s to fourth position after Cote D’Ivoire, Ghana and Indonesia respectively. Indonesia grew almost no cocoa before the early 1980s, when production took off and it is the world’s third leading producer of cocoa beans, growing 740,500 tons in 2012, according to the FAO.

With falling crude oil prices and government revenue, major stakeholders have continuously called for the diversification of the Nigerian economy through agriculture and the development of cocoa value chain provides such an opportunity.

Nigeria, world’s fourth largest cocoa producer and supplier, saw the value of its global supply decline by 59 percent, from $666.4 million in 2014 to $270.7 million in 2015, according to Nigeria’s non-oil export data, compiled by Cobalt Services, and obtained by BusinessDay.

However the failure to sustain and improve Nigeria’s production of cocoa over the years has led to its sharp decline and productivity at less than 0.350ton/hectare when other leading countries are producing about 2 to 5 tons per hectare of improved variety.  This challenge is further accentuated by the lack of planting materials for cocoa, which is greatly affecting cultivation of new cocoa plantation in Nigeria.

“Globally, the chocolate and cocoa industries are in crisis due to low productivity which is failing to meet a growing demand that is increasing by 2 percent annually,”  said Ranjana Bhattacharjee, senior researcher, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan.

There is need for Nigeria to urgently seize this opportunity growing global demand by increasing its falling cocoa production, experts say.

For Nigeria to achieve this, Ranjana said “the use of high quality planting materials in the right environment and management plus market demands must all be linked and developed to increase Nigeria’s cocoa yield, adding that there is a need to develop more hybrid varieties.”    

The age-old use of cocoa beans as seeds for the cultivation new cocoa seedling was strongly discouraged by the team of scientists and experts at the training.

The scientist noted that the size and shape of cocoa pods –as used by farmers to identify viable cocoa seed- is not the best way to find superior cocoa variety.

Adewale explained that a myriad of issues such as the environment and cross pollination affects the final output of the cash crop which can be ascertained if clonal materials from the best trees were used instead of the seeds.

The training of trainers on cocoa rehabilitation and planting material had major stakeholders from government officials to farmers, extension workers, policy makers, input suppliers, service providers and financial institutions from all cocoa producing states in Nigeria. The training which held at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture also featured a field trip to a cocoa plantation in Mamu village, Ijebu-Ode, where old cocoa trees were rehabilitated by the trainers to the delight of the local farmers.

Irrigating cocoa fields

Agricultural activities in 2016 have been predicted to experience significant decline following disclosures by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) that most parts of the country will experience less than normal volume, delayed, and early cessation of rainfall across the country.

Experts who spoke with BusinessDay attribute this to climate change, which is now affecting the agriculture cycle, thus making irrigation farming the only way to cushion the effects of inadequate rainfall.

“The time has passed for farmers to be solely relying on climate-fed agriculture as the climate changes,” Akpan Imeh an expert said.

Imeh stated that Cote D’Ivoire has expanded its cocoa productivity above Nigeria and every other country because it has evolved the cultivation of cocoa beyond the traditional ways which relies on climate. “If the soil forms a bond, then the soil will be able to withstand a lot of water stress but if there’s no bonding, irrigation is badly needed,” he added.

The constant supply of water to the farm throughout year irrespective of climate guarantees all year high yield of cocoa.

Josephine Okojie