₦airaland Forum

seborrhic:
Shocking report coming from Reuters.
Looking like what a typical Nigerian blog would write.
It takes an average of 3-5 years to harvest Cocoa.
So how can someone that went into cocoa farming in 2023,have harvested and sold that much by early 2025 or even 2024 when the guy interviewed would have harvested?
I hope Reuters has not been sold another agric scam because before you know it ponzi schemes would start exploding, telling people they will double their money in 6months once they invest their money into a cocoa farming programme with promises to buy hectares of cocoa that would be harvested and exported to the international market in 6months

Because they didn't start planting in 2023.

For your information, you are merely reading what has already been happening. The only reason this came out was because of the cocoa boom

seborrhic:
Shocking report coming from Reuters.
Looking like what a typical Nigerian blog would write.
It takes an average of 3-5 years to harvest Cocoa.
So how can someone that went into cocoa farming in 2023,have harvested and sold that much by early 2025 or even 2024 when the guy interviewed would have harvested?
I hope Reuters has not been sold another agric scam because before you know it ponzi schemes would start exploding, telling people they will double their money in 6months once they invest their money into a cocoa farming programme with promises to buy hectares of cocoa that would be harvested and exported to the international market in 6months

We need to frame this post for that day!!!
Because it just might happen!!!

seborrhic:
Shocking report coming from Reuters.
Looking like what a typical Nigerian blog would write.
It takes an average of 3-5 years to harvest Cocoa.
So how can someone that went into cocoa farming in 2023,have harvested and sold that much by early 2025 or even 2024 when the guy interviewed would have harvested?
I hope Reuters has not been sold another agric scam because before you know it ponzi schemes would start exploding, telling people they will double their money in 6months once they invest their money into a cocoa farming programme with promises to buy hectares of cocoa that would be harvested and exported to the international market in 6months

This is one of the problems of many Nigerians with comprehension. You were castigating the report and stating that cocoa needs between 3 and 5 years before it can be harvested. Did you not see in the report that there are now new breeds that take 18 months?

ECOWAS is not a monetary union.

UEMOA is for ECOWAS countries using XOF cfa

CEMAC is for non ECOWAS countries using XAF cfa

UEMOA and CEMAC are monetary unions and have their own Central banks.

Their Central banks BCEAO and BEAC manage the account in the French treasury for each single member country.
As XAF/XOF is pegged to the Euro, all their forex reserves are in that account as well as sales of crude and export forex earnings.
As such every country knows every countries reserves and earnings, loans and debt.
Inorder to prevent instability in the Union, whereby a countries debt falls below its earnings/reserves like in the 90%+ debt, borrowing to service debt and pay salary in Nigeria, the Central Bank has to greenlight every loan taken by every member country to ensure there is a pathway for repayment.
But most important of all, even Paul Biya and Obiang Nguema who have been in power for 40+ years, can never ever wake up one morning and unilaterally decide to add more color to the currency or order the Central Bank to devalue the currency or print more money via the ways and means CBN program.
I repeat never ever.
BCEAO and BEAC Central banks are governed by a Central Bank governor at the head which is rotated between member countries, representatives from each country plus French government officials.

ECOWAS is both toothless and useless plus when I hear about the ECOWAS courts, I just laugh at the stupidity of an economic community without a union of money.

NB: Incase you did not know, the famous Balthasar's father is the immediate past President of CEMAC.

Fujiyama:
Interesting.

To the poster on this thread advocating regional integration...

ECOWAS has not been able to achieve monetary and financial integration despite several years of empty promises and declarations. Remember the Eco?

If we can't even agree on a common currency for cross border trade, then what's the point? Nigeria uses the Naira. Ghana uses the Cedi. I wasn't even aware that there is a West African CFA franc (used by Togo, Benin, Niger and our other neighbours etc.) and a Central African CFA franc (used by Cameroon and Chad)!

omonnakoda:
Every thing in life has two side Let me introduce a different perspective

Yes farmers are making money but does the country benefit?

Some may argue. It brings in dollars .

Why are dollars a good thing? What do you do with the dollars? Consume imported stuff that fuels jobs in other countries?


The problem is this

Land used to grow cocoa is not being used to grow stuff that we eat in Nigeria. That is a problem

Is that opportunity cost worth it for the country if you end up importin rice? using dollars?

African Nations are being used as farmlands for rich countries to grow cocoa, cashew nuts cassava, coffee, tea even flowers whilst African people go hungry. Most of these cash crops their people cannot afford to consume.

We are not even allowed to add value to the cocoa and the real money is made in places like the USA, Belgium, France, Switzerland


We need to forget about using our land to service Europe with things our people cannot afford to consume

The other thing is that they have the power to crash prices of cocoa and other commodities when you least expect it . We have seen it many times with crude oil


We should focus on trading with our African neighbours growing things that Nigerians eat or our neighbours eat

Rice , Yam, beans, vegetables, cassava potatoes
If we must grow cocoa. We must insist on making chocolates from it and aim to get our people to consume it
If not let us aim to train our youths to make electric cars, solar panels and so on

No matter how you dice it the labourers working on cocoa farms are close to slave labour. Our people deserve better

Now Chinese people are going into the bush and loading containers with cashew and cocoa and our people are celebrating because they see the kind of money they have never seen before but it is not in our best interest. We need to look at the bigger world picture. See what Trump is doing

Let our land serve us

Something similar is happening with Dangote. He is more intent on exporting fertilizer than mobilizing it to boost food production in Nigeria.

Here is a very interesting fact

Nigeria is number 8 in the list of countries with Arable land and number one in Africa.


Why are we hungry.

The cocoa story is nice but let us switch that to what we actually eat IN NIGERIA

Many things can happen at the same time. Increase in cocoa production does not translate to decrease in food production.
Besides cocoa there are probably 100 other crops Nigerians can farm profitably.

seborrhic:
Shocking report coming from Reuters.
Looking like what a typical Nigerian blog would write.
It takes an average of 3-5 years to harvest Cocoa.
So how can someone that went into cocoa farming in 2023,have harvested and sold that much by early 2025 or even 2024 when the guy interviewed would have harvested?
I hope Reuters has not been sold another agric scam because before you know it ponzi schemes would start exploding, telling people they will double their money in 6months once they invest their money into a cocoa farming programme with promises to buy hectares of cocoa that would be harvested and exported to the international market in 6months

There are new strains developed that will fruit and be ready for harvest in 18 months


Read the article to the end and slowly this time and you will see where it was stated.

omonnakoda:
Your accant ?

That is a conversation you should have with people at your intellectual level

Na monkey and monkey dey jump


If you don gerrit forget it

My message is not for everyone

God bless you for your messages. It's thought-provoking.

NoToPile:
Interesting times, the people that inherited cocoa farms are cashing out big time.

Who ever thought....

Idanre peeps in the business I hail oo.

That's my people
How I go tap from this blessing

omonnakoda:
On the individual level the farmer is making money but at a strategic level Government needs to pay attention

e.g India puts in place export bans on rice because of the food security of their people

Today a lot of Chinese companies in Nigeria buy cassava which they use to make ethanol for export

That is cassava that does not end up in our plates
The effect . Less cassava for garri. Higher prices of garri

These companies are often state backed with cheap loans whilst interest rates in Nigeria are nearly 30%


We do not understand international trade and geopolitics

For me there is nothing to celebrate in this in is not in our national interest.
We have no control over cocoa prices and are vulnerable to shocks
We are excluded from the chocolate industry and need to think Nigeria first

Using our land for Cocoa is not the best use of our land if we cannot participate in the chocolate side

The same thing applies to Lithium we export unprocessed lithium when we should be making batteries which is exploding in demand
We are loading our jobs on those containers of cocoa

Nigeria does not export unprocessed lithium.

At least one lithium battery factory has been established, with more in the pipeline.

Rossikk:
Nigeria does not export unprocessed lithium.

At least one lithium battery factory has been established, with more in the pipeline.

Can we start by agreeing on a definition of PROCESSED

let us be certain we are talking about the same thing


So please share your definition

For clarification as far as Lithium batteries is concerned when I talked of exploding demand I was referring to batteries for Electric Vehicles that is where there is explosion

With regard to whatever factory you are referring to how much have they made in revenue since they started business

ElSudani:
Many things can happen at the same time. Increase in cocoa production does not translate to decrease in food production.
Besides cocoa there are probably 100 other crops Nigerians can farm profitably.

Thanks for your feedback

My message is not for every one

If you don't gerrit forget it
Many things can happen at the same time but many things are not happening

One thing that is happening is hunger

Our priority should be first food security

omonnakoda:
Thanks for your feedback

My message is not for every one

If you don't gerrit forget it
Many things can happen at the same time but many things are not happening

One thing that is happening is hunger

Our priority should be first food security

Right, some people have taken the initiative by growing cocoa, you can do your part by growing what you eat like some of us are already doing.
Lamenting about hunger on the internet is never going to feed you.

omonnakoda:
Every thing in life has two side Let me introduce a different perspective

Yes farmers are making money but does the country benefit?

Some may argue. It brings in dollars .

Why are dollars a good thing? What do you do with the dollars? Consume imported stuff that fuels jobs in other countries?


The problem is this

Land used to grow cocoa is not being used to grow stuff that we eat in Nigeria. That is a problem

Is that opportunity cost worth it for the country if you end up importin rice? using dollars?

African Nations are being used as farmlands for rich countries to grow cocoa, cashew nuts cassava, coffee, tea even flowers whilst African people go hungry. Most of these cash crops their people cannot afford to consume.

We are not even allowed to add value to the cocoa and the real money is made in places like the USA, Belgium, France, Switzerland


We need to forget about using our land to service Europe with things our people cannot afford to consume

The other thing is that they have the power to crash prices of cocoa and other commodities when you least expect it . We have seen it many times with crude oil


We should focus on trading with our African neighbours growing things that Nigerians eat or our neighbours eat

Rice , Yam, beans, vegetables, cassava potatoes
If we must grow cocoa. We must insist on making chocolates from it and aim to get our people to consume it
If not let us aim to train our youths to make electric cars, solar panels and so on

No matter how you dice it the labourers working on cocoa farms are close to slave labour. Our people deserve better

Now Chinese people are going into the bush and loading containers with cashew and cocoa and our people are celebrating because they see the kind of money they have never seen before but it is not in our best interest. We need to look at the bigger world picture. See what Trump is doing

Let our land serve us

Something similar is happening with Dangote. He is more intent on exporting fertilizer than mobilizing it to boost food production in Nigeria.

Here is a very interesting fact

Nigeria is number 8 in the list of countries with Arable land and number one in Africa.


Why are we hungry.

The cocoa story is nice but let us switch that to what we actually eat IN NIGERIA

Hogwash. Arrant nonsense. Who said we don't have enough land to produce what we eat alongside what we export in order to grow our dollar inflow and strengthen our local currency.
We are not hungry because our lands are taken up by cash crops, we are hungry because government has refused to invest in agriculture by supporting farmers and by making our farmlands safe.

omonnakoda:
Thanks for your feedback

My message is not for every one

If you don't gerrit forget it
Many things can happen at the same time but many things are not happening

One thing that is happening is hunger

Our priority should be first food security

Yes, many things are happening at the same time. Are you aware that most cocoa farmers intercrop it with plantain? The plantain trees provide shade for the young plants while providing food for the farmer.
Cocoa for the dollar, plantain for food!!
Are the plantains for export too?

Ask questions before you rush to conclusions.

omonnakoda:
On the individual level the farmer is making money but at a strategic level Government needs to pay attention

e.g India puts in place export bans on rice because of the food security of their people

Today a lot of Chinese companies in Nigeria buy cassava which they use to make ethanol for export

That is cassava that does not end up in our plates
The effect . Less cassava for garri. Higher prices of garri

These companies are often state backed with cheap loans whilst interest rates in Nigeria are nearly 30%


We do not understand international trade and geopolitics

For me there is nothing to celebrate in this in is not in our national interest.
We have no control over cocoa prices and are vulnerable to shocks
We are excluded from the chocolate industry and need to think Nigeria first

Using our land for Cocoa is not the best use of our land if we cannot participate in the chocolate side

The same thing applies to Lithium we export unprocessed lithium when we should be making batteries which is exploding in demand
We are loading our jobs on those containers of cocoa

Lithium is being processed in Nigeria before export. The government doesn't issue licences to mining firms or traders who aren't planning to open processing facilities. Cocoa is also processed into by-products, ditto cassava. No one stops you from planting cassava for garri production.

It's capitalism.

omonnakoda:
Can we start by agreeing on a definition of PROCESSED

let us be certain we are talking about the same thing


So please share your definition

For clarification as far as Lithium batteries is concerned when I talked of exploding demand I was referring to batteries for Electric Vehicles that is where there is explosion

With regard to whatever factory you are referring to how much have they made in revenue since they started business

Oga,

The processing facilities just started, so profits will take some time to generate. However, like the poster you replied, unprocessed lithium isn't exported from Nigeria. The government is vehemently against it, especially in the long-term.

Why do you think Nairalanders don't know about lithium uses for you to attempt lecturing someone about them?

franvincoop:
ECOWAS is not a monetary union.

franvincoop:
ECOWAS is both toothless and useless plus when I hear about the ECOWAS courts, I just laugh at the stupidity of an economic community without a union of money.

^^^
That's precisely my point.

New, old and not so old blocs like RCEP, USMCA, CPTPP etc. are re-shaping the world trade map. Fragmented African economies (that were hugely disadvantaged from the outset) simply do not stand a chance if they do not integrate. Old European colonial powers with centuries of experience in plunder of other continents - recognize that their economic survival is tied to their being able to negotiate trade treaties as a single EU bloc - with a common currency. If Europe recognizes that the EU is its only hope - what business does the West African sub-region (and the African continent as a whole) have with a full rainbow of currencies (Cedis, XOF CFA, XAF CFA, Naira etc.)?

Integration is the only way out.

franvincoop:
UEMOA is for ECOWAS countries using XOF cfa

CEMAC is for non ECOWAS countries using XAF cfa

UEMOA and CEMAC are monetary unions and have their own Central banks.

Their Central banks BCEAO and BEAC manage the account in the French treasury for each single member country.
As XAF/XOF is pegged to the Euro, all their forex reserves are in that account as well as sales of crude and export forex earnings.
As such every country knows every countries reserves and earnings, loans and debt.
Inorder to prevent instability in the Union, whereby a countries debt falls below its earnings/reserves like in the 90%+ debt, borrowing to service debt and pay salary in Nigeria, the Central Bank has to greenlight every loan taken by every member country to ensure there is a pathway for repayment.
But most important of all, even Paul Biya and Obiang Nguema who have been in power for 40+ years, can never ever wake up one morning and unilaterally decide to add more color to the currency or order the Central Bank to devalue the currency or print more money via the ways and means CBN program.
I repeat never ever.
BCEAO and BEAC Central banks are governed by a Central Bank governor at the head which is rotated between member countries, representatives from each country plus French government officials.

^^^
Interesting points about the stability of our Francophone neighbours.

Nigeria needs the discipline of belonging to a (common currency) economic/trade bloc (of course, without the malign, overbearing influence of former colonial masters like France but that's an entirely different topic) with rules that will be enforced. The Greeks learnt this lesson about discipline in a very hard and painful way...and perhaps Nigeria needs to as well.

franvincoop:
NB: Incase you did not know, the famous Balthasar's father is the immediate past President of CEMAC.

^^^


Ok.

I didn't anticipate that a discussion on cocoa farming and currency/monetary union would somehow slide into sextape territory but...here we are.

Where are those people who say economics is dry, boring stuff? They need to get in here and set their pulses racing.

Gerrard59:
Oga,

The processing facilities just started, so profits will take some time to generate. However, like the poster you replied, unprocessed lithium isn't exported from Nigeria. The government is vehemently against it, especially in the long-term.

Why do you think Nairalanders don't know about lithium uses for you to attempt lecturing someone about them?

I asked very specific questions . I want to believe you do not have comprehension problems
If you were not going to answer the questions there was no point quoting me

1. What is the definition of processed. What does that mean?
2 . I did not mention the word profit at all.

It is important to read and comprehend before reacting

The thread is not about lithium. That was an aside not the main point ,just an illustration.

Let me introduce some perspective here

Even the Europeans now have an ethical consideration for cocoa.

1. Cocoa sellers are expected to provide evidence that the cocoa was planted on land that was not cultivated by cutting down forests

2. The total cocoa export in the world last year was about $10 billion and Nigeria is not the number 1 or number 2 producer

3. Even if Nigeria produced all the cocoa in the world we would be talking about 10 billion USD

4. The Netherlands has a land mass of about 41000 square kilometres. compared to Niger State with about 76 000 square Kilometres
5. In 2024 The Netherlands exported about $130 billion worth of agricultural produce. That is from land about half the size of Niger State


What is my point

1. Strategic interest of Nigeria which entails protecting out food security and environment

2. why should we be cutting down any more forests to grow cocoa which at the end of the day is a relatively low value product
3. Yes Cocoa grows best in Areas we know as Rain Forest not in Northern Nigeria. Forests have to make way for Cocoa plantations, palm oil plantations, cashew plantations .That is the reality
4. In the global food market the money from these so called cash crops is SMALL POTATOES
5 FINAL FUN FACT the total amount of land in the world cultivated for Cocoa in 120000 square kilometres


Nearly 3 times the size of the Netherlands

All for $10 billion of exports?

That is not in the interest of the countries sacrificing their land for such enterprise

You can never substitute sentiments for facts and emotions

The Netherland 40000 square kilometres is NOT entirely a farmland . At most about 66% of the land is used for agriculture

to generate over $130 billion

and poor countries are destroying their forests for "DOLLARS" and celebrating ignorantly

Even if we use all the land in Nigeria for cocoa . i.e every inch we would not make as much money as the Netherlands makes from agriculture
We can do better

na cocoa farmers dey reign now

But how is ikom in South East make una dey relax oooo

Integration is the only way out.

Nigeria and Ghana are supposed to jettison the naira/cedi and use the cfa xof to ensure a monetary union in ECOWAS.
It's not rocket science, if Nigeria does that Ghana will follow suit same day.
But Nigeria will never do that because its leaders are working for themselves and not for Nigeria.
The CBN is a massive cash cow via BDC that they can never let go.
In my humble opinion, the real problem of Nigeria and all West and Central African countries has to do with the age of persons who are voted into power.
All of them were born before 1960.
They are older than the country and given our patriarchal and elderly mentality, they see Nigeria as their child and try to cater for its immediate needs but ignore their great grand children.
A chop broke pot mentality.
Nigeria needs a President who was born in atleast 1975-1980 to anticipate the development of 2035 and beyond.


Nigeria needs the discipline of belonging to a (common currency) economic/trade bloc (of course, without the malign, overbearing influence of former colonial masters like France but that's an entirely different topic) with rules that [b]will be enforced. The Greeks learnt this lesson about discipline in a very hard and painful way...and perhaps Nigeria needs to as well. [/b]

I don't blame France for anything happening in Africa cuz it takes 2 to tango.
There is always a bribe taker and a bribe giver.
The xaf and xof are pegged to the Euro via the French treasury.
If France ever misbehaves, CEMAC and BCEAO can decide tomorrow to peg themselves to the Euro via the German or Spanish or Italian treasury.
The French treasury is just a vehicle for pegging to the Euro currency.
It's a matter of choice and France knows this very well.
That's why the xaf and xof don't have the same value as the xaf is higher than the xof and is more stable and performant.
That's why France can't do shit to those XOF and XAF countries that ordered their troops out and closed down their embassies and shut their airspace to Airfrance.
I mean Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Chad.
The CFA currency does not belong to France, it belongs to us as is stated in the name CFA - African Financial community.


Where are those people who say economics is dry, boring stuff?

All topics including history is dry, boring stuff but Jack must play and work so as not to become a toy.
Abi wetin concern me with the DOB of the virgin Queen Elizabeth the 1st?
Wetin worry me na say she died a virgin but she for dish small something make Othello knack.

Good day to you.

Fujiyama:
^^^
That's precisely my point.

New, old and not so old blocs like RCEP, USMCA, CPTPP etc. are re-shaping the world trade map. Fragmented African economies (that were hugely disadvantaged from the outset) simply do not stand a chance if they do not integrate. Old European colonial powers with centuries of experience in plunder of other continents - recognize that their economic survival is tied to their being able to negotiate trade treaties as a single EU bloc - with a common currency. If Europe recognizes that the EU is its only hope - what business does the West African sub-region (and the African continent as a whole) have with a full rainbow of currencies (Cedis, XOF CFA, XAF CFA, Naira etc.)?

Integration is the only way out.



^^^
Interesting points about the stability of our Francophone neighbours.

Nigeria needs the discipline of belonging to a (common currency) economic/trade bloc (of course, without the malign, overbearing influence of former colonial masters like France but that's an entirely different topic) with rules that will be enforced. The Greeks learnt this lesson about discipline in a very hard and painful way...and perhaps Nigeria needs to as well.



^^^


Ok.

I didn't anticipate that a discussion on cocoa farming and currency/monetary union would somehow slide into sextape territory but...here we are.

Where are those people who say economics is dry, boring stuff? They need to get in here and set their pulses racing.

omonnakoda:
I asked very specific questions . I want to believe you do not have comprehension problems
If you were not going to answer the questions there was no point quoting me

1. What is the definition of processed. What does that mean?

Entire processing from start to finish. The lithium isn't exported in its raw form. The government forbids it. The same applies to gold mining.

2 . I did not mention the word profit at all.

You did to someone else. You asked for the revenue and profit of the lithium processing companies.

It is important to read and comprehend before reacting

I did. You are the one who wants the government to compel cassava farmers to produce only for Nigerians, even when there is an export market. As I stated, nothing stops you from producing garri while others supply to firms that produce ethanol. It is a free world.

Ransomtheking:
But how is ikom in South East make una dey relax oooo

In geographical terms, states East of the Niger are categrrised as Eastern Nigeria or Southeast Nigeria, and rightfully so as Cross River State is more eastern than say Anambra. The term "south south" is a political term that only exists within Nigeria and has nothing to do with geography of which cocoa farming is part of.

seborrhic:
Shocking report coming from Reuters.
Looking like what a typical Nigerian blog would write.
It takes an average of 3-5 years to harvest Cocoa.
So how can someone that went into cocoa farming in 2023,have harvested and sold that much by early 2025 or even 2024 when the guy interviewed would have harvested?
I hope Reuters has not been sold another agric scam because before you know it ponzi schemes would start exploding, telling people they will double their money in 6months once they invest their money into a cocoa farming programme with promises to buy hectares of cocoa that would be harvested and exported to the international market in 6months

You are assuming everyone that goes into cocoa farming starts from the beginning
No
Like you mentioned, it takes average 3-4 years For cocoa to bear fruits, most entrepreneur just buy/lease already producing farms and start making money immediately

Gerrard59:
Entire processing from start to finish. The lithium isn't exported in its raw form. The government forbids it. The same applies to gold mining.


You did to someone else. You asked for the revenue and profit of the lithium processing companies.


I did. You are the one who wants the government to compel cassava farmers to produce only for Nigerians, even when there is an export market. As I stated, nothing stops you from producing garri while others supply to firms that produce ethanol. It is a free world.


In geographical terms, states East of the Niger are categrrised as Eastern Nigeria or Southeast Nigeria, and rightfully so as Cross River State is more eastern than say Anambra. The term "south south" is a political term that only exists within Nigeria and has nothing to do with geography of which cocoa farming is part of.

What is raw form? Does it have a name? DO you actually have any technical knowledge of this issue or you are just blabbing

What is the chemical name of this so called RAW FORM
What is the Definition of processing
In what form is it exported


Honestly you are guessing, clueless and talking nonsense
Please do not quote me if you have no facts or anything intelligent to say

Gerrard59:
Entire processing from start to finish. The lithium isn't exported in its raw form. The government forbids it. The same applies to gold mining.


You did to someone else. You asked for the revenue and profit of the lithium processing companies.


I did. You are the one who wants the government to compel cassava farmers to produce only for Nigerians, even when there is an export market. As I stated, nothing stops you from producing garri while others supply to firms that produce ethanol. It is a free world.


In geographical terms, states East of the Niger are categrrised as Eastern Nigeria or Southeast Nigeria, and rightfully so as Cross River State is more eastern than say Anambra. The term "south south" is a political term that only exists within Nigeria and has nothing to do with geography of which cocoa farming is part of.

I have zero patience for un-intelligent folk

You claim I mentioned the word profit . I NEVER did .

Like I said you have difficulty with comprehension

If you cannot quote where I mentioned the word PROFIT

Just keep quiet and stop ridiculing yourself


What is RAW FORM of Lithium . What does that mean?
What is the definition of PROCESS

We all know the difference between garri and eba

So explain to us exactly what is Raw lithium and what happens during PROCESSING and what the output COOKED or processed LITHIUM looks like and how it is different

Variety they say is the spice of life and thank God that it takes 18months to 5 years to harvest cocoa and farmers will have to grow other cash crops to survive in the interim.

For food security, majority of the government assistance should be geared towards Nigerian staples while making sure that the opportunity presented from produce for export is also able to happen to make farming worthwhile.

We all need to be able to thrive in whatever sector we work. A living wage and more.

omonnakoda:
Every thing in life has two side Let me introduce a different perspective

Yes farmers are making money but does the country benefit?

Some may argue. It brings in dollars .

Why are dollars a good thing? What do you do with the dollars? Consume imported stuff that fuels jobs in other countries?


The problem is this

Land used to grow cocoa is not being used to grow stuff that we eat in Nigeria. That is a problem

Is that opportunity cost worth it for the country if you end up importin rice? using dollars?

African Nations are being used as farmlands for rich countries to grow cocoa, cashew nuts cassava, coffee, tea even flowers whilst African people go hungry. Most of these cash crops their people cannot afford to consume.

We are not even allowed to add value to the cocoa and the real money is made in places like the USA, Belgium, France, Switzerland


We need to forget about using our land to service Europe with things our people cannot afford to consume

The other thing is that they have the power to crash prices of cocoa and other commodities when you least expect it . We have seen it many times with crude oil


We should focus on trading with our African neighbours growing things that Nigerians eat or our neighbours eat

Rice , Yam, beans, vegetables, cassava potatoes
If we must grow cocoa. We must insist on making chocolates from it and aim to get our people to consume it
If not let us aim to train our youths to make electric cars, solar panels and so on

No matter how you dice it the labourers working on cocoa farms are close to slave labour. Our people deserve better

Now Chinese people are going into the bush and loading containers with cashew and cocoa and our people are celebrating because they see the kind of money they have never seen before but it is not in our best interest. We need to look at the bigger world picture. See what Trump is doing

Let our land serve us

Something similar is happening with Dangote. He is more intent on exporting fertilizer than mobilizing it to boost food production in Nigeria.

Here is a very interesting fact

Nigeria is number 8 in the list of countries with Arable land and number one in Africa.


Why are we hungry.

The cocoa story is nice but let us switch that to what we actually eat IN NIGERIA

Nobody should be going hungry in Nigeria while we sit on gold ie arable land but our people think farming is beneath them or are lazy to take opportunities.

Abroad, If you see how people take pride in using the small garden behind their homes and the allotment of land for farming during the short period that the weather permits you will be encouraged.

Our priorities for that country eh. Too many lazy hands looking for free manna from heaven.

Checkwell:
You have spoken very well.