Agriculture
THE Kogi State Government is partnering with Solidaridad, a global non-governmental organization, NGO, to improve oil palm production and the livelihood of smallholder oil palm farmers in the state. The project is aimed at building farmer’s capacity to implement best management practices, intensification and rehabilitation efforts.
In a statement made available to Realnews, Solidaridad said the project would teach the farmers sustainable climate-smart practices for increased productivity. The NGO will also introduce innovation for improved downstream processing to increase palm oil extraction rate and quality, create a competitive oil palm sector through policy and institutional dialogue and influencing, and improve access to finance, inputs and markets for oil palm smallholder farmers and SMEs.
After meetings and dialogues between officials of the state government and the team of Solidaridad, the government recently showed its commitment to the laudable initiatives of the company through an intent letter expressing its readiness to partner with Solidaridad in its capacity building initiatives of smallholder farmers in the state.
According to Samuel Ogallah, Senior Climate Specialist for Africa, Solidaridad, the intent letter from the state government state shows the willingness of the governor to revitalize agricultural practices in the state for the benefit of the people. To him, the state stands to benefit from the expertise of Solidaridad in the area of climate-friendly agriculture, which the NGO has demonstrated around the world in the last 50 years of its existence.
The capacity of farmers will be enhanced through increased productivity and better livelihood, the project will build adaptive capacity and resilience to the impact of climate change, and with the adoption of climate-smart technology, the emission of Green House Gas, (GHG), will be reduced in their practices both at the farm and milling level,” he said.
On his part, Kenechukwu Onukwube, Oil Palm Programme Manager, SWA, Nigeria, said the recent buy-in of Solidaridad’s NISCOPS programme by the government is the right step towards revitalisation of the state’s oil palm sector, as the state is vital in the production of the commodity in the country.
According to him, the initiatives of Solidaridad are important because “Kogi is one of the states in Nigeria with rich oil palm belt”.
He noted that most of the oil palm are overaged and in the wild or semi-wild grooves with poor fresh fruit bunch yield and low quantity and quality of palm oil and that other challenges experienced by smallholders and the government in the sector in Kogi are: “inadequate financial support; lack of good policy direction and other incentives to boost palm produce economy which the NISCOPS programme will address.”
Enthused by the objectives of NI-SCOPS as an initiative that will overcome these challenges in the very near future, smallholders in the state have expressed readiness to participate in the programme by trooping out in large numbers taking the lead among four states during the farmer profiling exercise.
Onukwube praised the government of Kogi State for being the first among other states like Enugu, Cross River and Akwa Ibom, to express interest and commitment through an official letter to Solidaridad. He noted that NI-SCOPS’ objectives align with the state’s ‘New Direction Blueprint Agenda for the Agricultural Sector.’
“Generally, the smallholders and the state government have confidence that the oil palm growth due to deforestation will be halted while the livelihood of NI-SCOPS’ beneficiaries will be enhanced,” he said.
Idenyi Emmanuel, permanent secretary, ministry of agriculture, Kogi State, suggested that Solidaridad should look inwards to other commodities such as cotton, cassava, cashew, soya beans, as well as minerals like gold, iron ore, coal, which are in abundance in the state. There are more than 24 solid minerals in Kogi state. According to Emmanuel, arable land worth about 10 million is available for farming in the state which can add value to the economy of the state.
Why Ayode Arike Folashade, secretary to the government of Kogi State, SSG, promised that the government will do whatever it takes to facilitate Solidaridad’s operations in the state.
This is on the background that the goal of the government is to make Kogi State an agricultural hub of the nation. She assured that her office will facilitate the enabling environment for efficient execution of Solidaridad’s NISCOPS programme in the State.
The Kogi state traditional council has also endorsed the Solidaridad’s NISCOPS project in the state. His Royal Highness, Ujah Sani Simeon, the Enek’ojokpuche, and Chairman Olamaboro Local Government Traditional Council, promised Solidaridad all the necessary support needed. He assured that the NISCOPS programme in the state will alleviate poverty in his community and strengthen the participation of youths in the agricultural sector.
Having considered Nigeria as one of the major producers of palm oil in the West Africa sub-region, Solidaridad is presently executing its NISCOPS initiative in the states of Akwa-Ibom, Enugu, Cross River, and Kogi, which are among the largest producers of oil palm in the country.
These states have the largest concentrations of independent smallholders, accounting for 89 percent of the palm oil production in Nigeria, and therefore provide a viable avenue to trigger smallholders’ embrace of sustainable climate-smart agricultural practices as the norm in oil palm production among the smallholders.
Using NI-SCOPS resources, corporate and public match funding, Solidaridad aims to support smallholder oil palm farmers and to promote access to financing, agro-inputs, climate-smart technologies and markets so as to increase productivity sustainably, build resilience to climate change and to reduce GHG emissions in Nigeria.
Solidaridad operates in Nigeria as Solidaridad West Africa, SWA Nigeria, with its projects in the oil palm sector – the National Initiatives for Sustainable and Climate-Smart Oil Palm Smallholders, NISCOPS.
– Aug. 9, 2019 @ 12:52 GMT |
Tags: Solidaridad partners Kogi State to improve palm oil production
