Nigeria: A state project to improve palm oil production leads to the destruction of cocoa farms in what should be a forest reserve

This is the second part of this report. Read the first part here. Abayomi Isinleye, chairman of the farmers’ association at the Oluwa forest reserve, put the losses incurred from the destruction of the cocoa plantations at N500 million or more. “Just one cocoa tree is generational wealth. You keep profiting from it until you age and hand it to your children. On a plot of land, you can harvest two thousand cocoa seeds annually. Right now, SAO Agro-Allied Services Limited has graded up to 2,000 hectares of cocoa farms,” Mr Isinleye told TheCable. “In a year, one can make up to N10 million from a cocoa farm, sometimes N20 million, depending on how big your farm is. At the moment, cocoa is N3,800 per kilo. A ton is N3.8 million. Some harvest six, eight, or ten tons annually. Aside from that, we have other produce on the farm, like yam, kolanut, cassava, and vegetables that we sell to people. So, when a farm is destroyed, the loss is unquantifiable. It is the major source of wealth for ...