[size=13pt]Nigerian cocoa output to double by 2015: minister[/size]

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Nigeria's cocoa production will double in the next four years, while wheat and rice imports are set to fall as Africa's most populous nation strives to be more food self-sufficient, the country's agriculture minister told Reuters.

Nigeria, the world's fourth-largest cocoa producer, has had stagnant output over recent decades due to poor infrastructure and a focus on its oil business, the mainstay of sub-Saharan Africa's second-largest economy.

Agriculture Minister, Akinwunmi Adesina, said cocoa production would rise to 500,000 metric tonnes by 2015, from around 250,000 metric tonnes now, aided by improved infrastructure and financing.

"We need to get our farmers the right kind of cocoa seedlings, revamp our plantations and improve the quality of our cocoa that is supplied by our farmers, that means that we must provide them with better fertilizers," he told Reuters in the capital Abuja.

"We have a programme with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) where we have leveraged from commercial banks 450 billion naira for lending to private sector, to farmers, fertilizer companies, food manufacturers."

A series of previous agriculture ministries have promised to boost cocoa production above 500,000 metric tonnes but have failed to deliver.

Agriculture contributed around 40 percent of GDP last year and provides around 70 percent of employment, according to the national statistics bureau.

However, the sector has been on the decline since the 1960s and Nigeria remains a net importer of food, while oil exports account for around 95 percent of foreign exchange revenues.

Adesina has pledged to grow more rice, which he says Nigeria spends 356 billion naira a year on importing, and reduce wheat imports by 10 percent, replacing the lost product with cassava as an alternative for flour mill owners.

"We don't have comparative advantage in wheat production. We are currently spending 635 billion naira importing wheat into this country but yet we have farmers producing cassava."

"It is very clear that substitution of 10 percent cassava flour for wheat flour is fine for bread and for confectionary and it will create a huge amount of jobs here in Nigeria that alone will mop up around 500,000 metric tonnes of cassava roots in this country and stabilise prices for farmers."

Flour mill owners would be offered incentives to use cassava, he added.

Poverty

President Goodluck Jonathan has said agriculture is the key to reducing unemployment and poverty in Nigeria, where most of the 140 million inhabitants live on less than $2 a day and spend around 80 percent of their income on food.

The knock-on effect for real incomes from food production is particularly apparent as food makes up around 50 percent of consumer inflation. The CBN has made keeping inflation under control a priority of monetary policy.

"We need to very quickly raise the production of food that will lower the cost of food for people in the market and therefore real wages will rise, so that is our goal. It is not just food for food sake it is food for the whole economy, to reduce inflation and for boosting jobs," Adesina said.

Unemployment is feeding unrest in Nigeria with increased ethnic and religious tensions in the central "Middle Belt", where the largely Christian south meets the mostly Muslim north, killing hundreds in the last three months.

Meanwhile, a radical Islamist sect in the remote northeast has been behind almost daily shootings and bombings, including a suicide attack at the U.N. building in Abuja last month that killed at least 23 people and wounded more than 100.

"I think while there is no question we have a number of ethnic and religious undertones but I think the fundamental problem is we have a lot of unemployment," the minister said.

"Youths don't want (unrest) they want employment."

The minister's plans are heavily reliant on success in other areas of the economy, including the gas sector to boost fertilizer production and improve quality and the power and transport sectors to improve infrastructure to attract foreign investment.

The petroleum minister has laid out a road map for harnessing Nigeria's gas reserves, the seventh-largest in the world, and has agreed deals in principle to build two fertilizer plants and five fertilizer blending plants.

Persistent power outages are a major brake on Nigeria's economy and the solution is long-term. The power ministry hopes to double power output to 6,000 megawatts by 2013 but this only scratches the surface of the 40,000 megawatts the country needs.

Political wrangling and corruption have prevented Nigeria from utilising its vast energy resources for domestic needs in the past several decades.

REUTERS

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yes,these were d words of the minister during his screenin.I watched it live on t.v. but will d cabals of mr fresh air allow him actualise his dreams? dats d problem. he has nice plans n visions.

Time will tell, 2015 is not eternity

So we've heard from the past Agric Minister, where is the Presidential Initiative on Rice and Cassava today? Right from the Back to Land Policy of the 70's Agricultural Policies in Nigeria are all good but implementation is always poor, am very sure that the Jackals to siphon more money from the ministers Cocoa resuscitation Policy.

Goodluck Ministers are are just coming up with promises, how long does it take to plant and double the production by 100%, this is all story. we will, all story

The dreams of the minister are not in agreement with the facts on ground. how would the production of cocoa be increased not to talk of doubled when most cocoa farmers are selling their land to developers? The only way the minister can realise his dreams is to give incentives to the farmers in the form of subsidy.

lets hope so

Good thing tho. Nigeria's oil reserves wld be exhausted by 2030 so the earlier they start looking for alternatives, the better.

Agriculture and education (knowledge) with our population are enough for us as resources to make Nigeria great.

Witi:

So we've heard from the past Agric Minister, where is the Presidential Initiative on Rice and Cassava today? Right from the Back to Land Policy of the 70's Agricultural Policies in Nigeria are all good but implementation is always poor, am very sure that the Jackals to siphon more money from the ministers Cocoa resuscitation Policy.

That is true. OBJ talk alot on cassava when he was there, absolute nothing come from it.

If government is serious and determined that we need to generate more revenue from agriculture  not only to provide job for people the sector will be revived.

We should be able to produce the amount of rice we need.

After making this statement, he goes back to his air conditioner office to drink tea.

Does dis shina knows anything about cocoa production? my late father has 2 cocoa planttions in Ekiti state. How on earth could fertizer boost increase productivity on cocoa? he should go to ore in ondo state, and ise ekiti in ekiti state, the 2 states being the highest producer of cocoa in Nigeria 'IF TEY PLANTS WITH FERTILIZER' and ask the poor farmers wot they really need to boost productivity, he would observe that the major needs are insecticde such as 'copper sulphate' and good marketing board that would buy the product directly from the farmers to encourage them and stop exploitation of private buyers. untill we have a minister of agriculture who is a practical farmer to the call that understand the rudiments, we would continue to diminish in agric output if all this coat and tie minister that knows nothing except 'the rule of thumb (book theory)' are still at the helm of affairs in our nation.
joy to the wise!

May God Almighty help him to actualize his plans for the state.AMEN
www.geomelgroup.org

D same Old Story

FG will not allow the sucess of the scheme, because it will empower the SW Rascal governors economically and make them less dependent on Federally shared allocations,Awolowo once developed the Western Region from Cocoa proceeds.

na lie, i no believe. All of them are d same

Another "will" from the stable of govt officials that believe in futuristic words with no action plan.

Guess where the current minister will be by 2015?
Out of office with no strategic plan in place for achieving set future targets

Another promise and they are expecting our expectations

walex2:

Does dis shina knows anything about cocoa production? my late father has 2 cocoa planttions in Ekiti state. How on earth could fertizer boost increase productivity on cocoa? he should go to ore in ondo state, and ise ekiti in ekiti state, the 2 states being the highest producer of cocoa in Nigeria 'IF TEY PLANTS WITH FERTILIZER' and ask the poor farmers wot they really need to boost productivity, he would observe that the major needs are insecticde such as 'copper sulphate' and good marketing board that would buy the product directly from the farmers to encourage them and stop exploitation of private buyers. untill we have a minister of agriculture who is a practical farmer to the call that understand the rudiments, we would continue to diminish in agric output if all this coat and tie minister that knows nothing except 'the rule of thumb (book theory)' are still at the helm of affairs in our nation.
joy to the wise!

I agree this particular minister talk a lot of numbers!!!

Fertilizers actually increases yields, we dont use enough of it in farming in nigeria

The belief that we need a 'practical' farmer, just like we need an Engineer for the ministry of works/Power/transport or former football for the ministry of sports to achieve any tangible result is pure fallacy; we only have to look around the world

Yinkay:

FG will not allow the sucess of the scheme, because it will empower the SW Rascal governors economically and make them less dependent on Federally shared allocations,Awolowo once developed the Western Region from Cocoa proceeds.

True words. Fortunately, there's still a lot of money in cocoa products. Let's just hope our rascal governors wake up and support cocoa processing, not just exporting raw cocoa.

I will be of great help promoting Cassava, Corn and Cocoa

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