Ooni unveils nursery of one million cocoa trees for youth empowerment

[b]The Ooni of Ife, His Imperial Majesty Ooni Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi (Ojaja II) has unveiled a nursery plant of one million cocoa pots and trees in Ile-Ife, to be distributed as part of his Youth Empowerment programme.

The programme is part of the Ooni’s quest to see the revival of agriculture through 100,000 youths and thousands of widows who are victims of the communal war between Ife and Modakeke.

Comrade Moses Olafare, Director of Media and Public Affairs, Ooni’s palace, said in a statement that Kabiyesi is saddened by the neglect of cocoa farming which was once a major foreign exchange earner in Nigeria especially in the Southwest.

He said the Arole Oodua who is the Grand Patron of the Graduate Farmers Association of Nigeria has imperatively chosen agriculture and cocoa specifically, which now sells for about $3,000 dollars per tonne as a perfect alternative to the dwindling crude oil now selling below $40 dollars per barrel.

With the latest unveiling, the Ooni has embarked on a journey to create the largest cocoa plantation nursery in Nigeria. The scheme targets 10 million trees to be rolled out in one million phases with the youths getting 2000 plants each.

The Ooni’s position is that “if we have stronger partnerships/alliances with Government, for it is a very capital intensive venture, it is not impossible to expand the cocoa plantation nursery to well over 100m trees to be spread across the entire country just to bring back the cocoa days”

The Osun State governor, Rauf Aregbesola has thrown his weight behind the project which is sure to improve the state’s Internally Generated Revenue.

The programme has gone into the following collaborations:

The Federal Government through Minister of Agriculture Chief Audu Ogbe has given a nod of cooperation for the greenfield to enjoy mechanization to produce hybrids and improved seedlings that will yeild 2000kg to be harvested all year round.
Dynamic Green Concept Ltd, a USA based company from Dallas for soil improvement.
A strategic partnership with the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN).
Kabiyesi will also in June visit Hersey Chocolate factory in Philadelphia which is the American biggest Chocolate factory for the supply of cocoa beans and for further value addition to cocoa processing in Nigeria before exportation.
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Olafare added:

Having done our homework to satisfaction, and with some studies on countries like Ghana, Ivory Coast and Indonesia a country earlier with Zero cocoa production but today is the world’s second largest exporter of cocoa that have consistently in the last five decades based their economic sustainability on agriculture, the major way of taking the youths off the streets is to encourage them to go into lucrative farming.

And since Cocoa is undoubtedly a cash crop with potentials for foreign exchange earnings, we have thus decided to break the jinx as we already have plantation brownfield that has existed for about 100 years on which several farmers have been producing between 300 and 350 kilograms per hectare. And of course because those aged cocoa trees have spent about 100years, they are obviously too weak for expected productivity.

We therefore must start a new Greenfield of cocoa plantation with a pilot scheme at Ile-Ife and subsequently replicated across the country as we already have very good understanding of alliance with the North sequel to a meeting Kabiyesi Ooni’risa recently held in Sokoto with Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar and 6 Emirs on possible agricultural exchange of expertise.

It will be very great if only Government can support this laudable initiative and we can subsidize farmers from cocoa nursery trees. It will further encourage hundreds of thousands of youths to come into agriculture. From our effort, a lot of youths are already off the street and it has drastically reduced crime rate in Ife currently as confirmed by all the security agencies within our domain. This can be extended largely to every part of the country going forward.

The Ooni’s plan is to spread the idea to other cash crops and food crops most especially massive rice production in Nigeria.[/b]

http://newspeakonline.com/ooni-unveils-nursery-of-one-million-cocoa-trees-for-youth-empowerment/

chaaai!
Is the Ooni a ipob yoot?
So he want we yoruba to go and plant cocoa?
him no know say crude oil sweet pass?

The rash of renaissance, positiveness, hunger for progress and development across the SW is very heartwarming and inspiring..

Awesome! it could be very lucrative in the form of business with foreign exportation, when I think of cocoa I think of chocolate

Also a good initiative work scheme wise, bringing more people towards seeking employment in the agriculture sector.

tit:
[s]chaaai!
Is the Ooni a ipob yoot?
So he want we yoruba to go and plant cocoa?
him no know say crude oil sweet pass?[/s]

Very useless comment.

Very poor attempt at being sarcastic.

Very very poor attempt at sounding funny.

That oil discovery and production stuff dey scratch una for body like chicken pox rashes- make una go rub drink calamine lotion already.


#BadBelles.

all those alaye boys that are fighting in ladipo and mile 12,
should be loaded in trailer and carried to Ooni farms.


what the old oba of lagos cannot do,
the young charismatic Ooni have do it.
no elect old people like buhari again.

North west alliance again some people wont like it

The whole salary thing was a real blessing in disguise for Osun state and the SW in general.

Osun and other SW states were caught napping when oil prices dropped but we've learnt

There's so much going on in the state at the moment.

Couldn't believe my eyes when i saw the state ranked 16 in the last IGR report.

And it can only get better

tit:
all those alaye boys that are fighting in ladipo and mile 12,
should be loaded in trailer and carried to Ooni farms.


what the old oba of lagos cannot do,
the young charismatic Ooni have do it.
no elect old people like buhari again.

pesin wen go still de till2023

finally a king who gives a damn about his subjects

aminho:
North west alliance again some people wont like it

wetin we north contribute for this cocoa farm again?

The west always a miles ahead.

Sall:
The west always a miles ahead.

yes ooo

A very laudable move.

tit:


wetin we north contribute for this cocoa farm again?

read first dullard

Dis is lovely. The Ooni shd try and push it up to 10 million trees. Now dat will really be massive.

A nice initiative by the Ooni.


Owning a nursery is a very lucrative venture. With in-depth Knowledge. the sky is the limit.

Weldone sur

Kabiesi is really trying

Kudos to the Ooni. Hopefully it wld impart on lives n revenue.

ok

On alayeluwa


Good development

Great one from the Ooni of Ife, practical way of being a true leader of the people, not one area father threatenning every one he can with drowning & death in eko.

Kabiyesi, long may he reign.

I love cocoa Nice one.

Onni, Kabiyesi may you live long and may the almighty bestow upon you wisdom and knowledge to take your kingdom to greater heights.
I only wish more traditional rulers will emulate you and liberate their subjects rather than clamor and converge at the gates of Aso rock hussling for contracts and spoils from the presidents dinner table.

This is a good development. I hope the child of the common man will have access to this empowerment without ojoro.....

tit:
all those alaye boys that are fighting in ladipo and mile 12,
should be loaded in trailer and carried to Ooni farms.


what the old oba of lagos cannot do,
the young charismatic Ooni have do it.
no elect old people like buhari again.

Hahaha .... I saw your first comment and I was taken aback. This second one is startling...and that's putting it mildly. You honestly need to work on your tenses. The anonymity afforded on this forum is your Achilles heel ... I imagine meeting you in person.

Today is Ma Birthday show some Love

.

May the cost of crude remain below $50 so my people can be liberated from the slavery called crude. Very few countries are wealthy today solely because they have crude. But if you invest in agriculture, you will surely be wealthy, Its not easy money and so its doesn't blow off like the wind knowing another one will appear per barrel tomorrow

1million plants indeed

God, I love this. I wish Nigeria could produce its own chocolate... Dat alone shud improve d lives of d people even its by 0.0000005% atleast someone is doin smthng instead of complaining, cursing and whinning abt everythng