Nigeria: Cocoa and coffee farmers in Taraba face many hurdles

MayoSelbe and other communities in Gashaka Local Government Area of Taraba State are sleeping on gold mine but lack of knowledge of the potential of their environment has prevented them from harnessing it. The land, which is vast and fertile, has the potential of growing cocoa, coffee, oil palm and other cash and food crops in commercial quantity but only a few in the community take the advantage of growing these cash crops, especially cocoa and coffee. Mr Aaron Johnson, one of the cocoa farmers in MayoSelbe, told Daily Trust that cocoa and coffee seed were first distributed to some interested farmers in 1967. Before then, researchers from Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria had discovered that the Gashaka area had the potential of growing cocoa and coffee in commercial quantity. “The experimental farm located along MayoSelbe-Ago,” Johnson said, is a clear indication of such potential as the farm is yielding top quality cocoa and coffee yearly since its establishment 53 years ago. ...