Cross River to expand cocoa farmland, boost output

Cross River State plans to expand land under cocoa cultivation by a third in the current season and revamp old farms in a bid to double output, an official said.

“We intend to bring about 4,000 hectares of previously unplanted areas into cocoa cultivation,” Egrinya Eneji, state commissioner for agriculture, said Friday in an e-mailed response to questions from the capital city, Calabar, “We intend to introduce the most modern cocoa hybrids capable of yields of 2 metric tons per hectare.”

Located on Nigeria’s south-eastern border with Cameroon, Cross River accounts for about 30 percent of the country’s cocoa, with the south-western region producing about 60 percent. Nigeria, the world’s number four cocoa producer after Ivory Coast, Ghana and Indonesia, estimated its 2013-14 season output to be 350,000 tons.

Government-owned estates account for about 4,000 hectares (9,884 acres) of existing cocoa farms in Cross River, while smallholder farmers cultivate another 4,000 hectares around the cocoa-trading town of Ikom, according to Eneji.

Farmers will receive 5 million cocoa seedlings to cultivate new farms and revamp old ones at the start of the planting season in March, he said.