Agriculture
A Non-Governmental Organisation, Climate and Sustainable Development Network (CSDevNet), says farmers do not need to engage in deforestation in order to expand their farm land.
The Programme Manager of the organisation, Mr Steve Abu, said this on Tuesday during a training workshop for farmers in Ikom, Ikom Local Government Area of Cross River.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that in the workshop tagged “Climate-Resilient Agriculture”, no fewer than 50 farmers from forest dependent communities had their capacity strengthened during the training.
Abu said the training was principally meant to discourage farmers from deforestation because of its attendant effect on the environment.
According to him, the essence of the training is to see how we can build the resilient for farmers from forest dependent communities in the face of this changing climate.
“In the workshop, farmers were trained on how to adopt new and sustainable practices in their farming and to discourage them from incessant tree felling.
“This is to encourage them not to go into deforestation in a bid to expand their farm land.
“We encourage them to go into alternative and sustainable cocoa production, fish farming, oil palm management practices and also snail farming,” he said.
Abu explained that farmers could get the same quantity of yield without necessarily destroying the forest through smart agriculture.
However, Mr Stephen Njar, who took the farmers on the topic: Sustainable Cocoa Production said that Nigeria cocoa does not attract the level of premium it required because the quality does not meet world market requirements.
He noted that over 585.648 tonnes of cocoa valued at about N702 million, exit Cross River between the months of September and December annually.
“It is sad to know that our cocoa does not attract the level of premium it requires because the quality doesn’t meet world market requirements.
“Our cocoa bean doesn’t compete favourably with cocoa beans from Brazil, Ghana and other countries who service the market.
“This is largely because we have not been able to produce sustainably, hence the need for Sustainable cocoa Production.
“Sustainable cocoa Production is simple measures put in place to ensure that the process of producing cocoa does not have any negative impact on the environment.
Njar said for cocoa production to be Sustainable, there was need to train the farmers on planting method, slashing, pruning, spraying, harvesting, fermentation, drying, bagging and scaling.
NAN also reports that the farmers commended the NGO for the workshop but noted that there was need for the government to be proactive in the implementation of policies geared towards deforestation. NAN)
KN
Tags: CSDevNet Stephen Njar Steve Abu
