Nigeria: ‘Agro-forestry will create jobs for youths, rid cocoa, cashew-producing states of criminals’

Dr Patrick Adebola is the newly appointed Executive Director of the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN), Ibadan, Oyo State. He explains how most forests can be developed for agro-forestry farms to engage youths in cash crop production; the challenges confronting cocoa and cashew production, and availability of improved planting materials and distribution impediments, among others. FEMI IBIROGBA, Head, Agro-Economy, reports. Nigeria produces fewer tonnes of cocoa beans yearly than Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire. What are the factors responsible for the poor productivity in Nigeria and how can they be resolved? First, most of the cocoa trees in Nigeria have been existing from about 40 to 60 years and even more. Therefore, those plantations have declined in productivity and there is a need to either plant new ones or that the old plantation undergoes thorough rehabilitation. This is one of the reasons the productivity is low. Secondly, there is the issue of the quality of planting ...