The Enugu State Government says it has concluded plans to actualize its initiative of the state being a net exporter of cocoa, and its value-chain derivatives by developing a 20- hectares pilot cocoa plantation.
The move is in fulfilment of Governor Peter Mbah’s cocoa initiative, meant to make Enugu State a net exporter of cocoa, and other cash crops within a few years in order to grow the state’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from $4 billion to $30 billion.
Commissioner for Agriculture and Agro-Industrialisation, Mr. Patrick Ubru, told newsmen on Tuesday, in Enugu, that the pilot plantation of 20 hectares is currently located in Nkanu East Local Government Area of the state.
“In line with Gov. Peter Mbah’s vision, the Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-Industrialisation is in partnership with a private investor, WhiteRabbit Agro Limited, to develop the cocoa initiative and make the state a mass cocoa producer and processor.
“The state ministry would also push to spread the initiative to five other local government areas surrounding Nkanu East Local Government Area, due to their similarities in topography and soil type.
Read Also: Army court martial 5 officers, 20 soldiers in Enugu
“We are reaching out to local government areas within that topography and soil type zone such as Nkanu West, Isi-Uzo, Oji-River, Aninri and Agwu, to at least do a pilot of 100 hectares of cocoa plantation each.
“We are pursuing it with the vigour it deserves, and we want to ensure that we encourage our farmers to take to cocoa farming and have large cocoa plantations of their own,” he said.
The commissioner said that its project partners, WhiteRabbit Agro Limited, are already developing 100, 000 high yielding and early producing cocoa variety obtained from the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria, Ibadan.
Ubru said that the cocoa nursery is located at Amaechi Idodo community in Nkanu East Local Government Area.
“One tonne of cocoa today in the international market goes for $10, 500, in naira value it’s about N16.3 million.
“His Excellency, Peter Mbah, gave a mandate to the ministry, when we came on board; to develop cocoa farming and we are head-on doing it and collaborating with all stakeholders to do that,” he said.
The commissioner said that personally, he does cocoa and palm nurseries in his farm presently, adding that it would soon transform to large hectares of cocoa and palm plantations.
