BY NSAN NDOMA-NEJI, CALABAR
Special Adviser SA to governor Ben Ayade of Cross River, on Cocoa Development and Control, Ntufam Dr Oscar Ofuka has distributed improved variety cocoa pods to be used to by farmers in the south to raise nursery.
This according to the SA would help in the increase of tonnes produced by the state, to give opportunity to the state to contribute it’s quota towards making Nigeria have it’s pride of place among nations of the world that produce cocoa to boost thier revenue earnings.
Distributing the improved variety cocoa pods to traditional rulers in the south Senatorial district of Cross River State at the Cross River Broadcasting Corporation CRBC Calabar demonstration farm yesterday,Ofuka stated that the initiative is in furtherance to Cocoa revolution agenda of Senator Professor Ben Ayade.
“As oil dependence navigates the nation’s economy into dusk of uncertainty, Governor Ben’s agro -industrial initiative has lightened the fuse for an explosive rediscovery of new economic opportunities for Cross River State and the country at large.
“This new economic trajectory of migrating away from non renewable, but exhaustive fossil fuel and gas to agro-industrial-driven economy, is witnessing a rebirth in Cross River State under the watch of Governor Ben Ayade who is interested in turning around the fortunes of the state.
This novel initiative is sustained by the extant principle of comparative advantage and the state is set to take a lead among the comity of subnational governments by standing very tall in a highly competitive global market mostly now that Cocoa maintains appreciative similitude value with gold.
“I call cocoa as black gold, the new oil of Cross River State. I charge you all to go into cocoa cultivation and see if your lives and that of your generation yet unborn won’t be changed.
The SA maintained that the Ben Ayade’s ingenious Cocoa initiative, comes with a value-chain that has the potentials of taking many jobless youths off the streets, aside improving on the export value of the Cross River State Cocoa.
According Ofuka all over the world, cocoa remains one the leading cash crops which plays a leading roll to the economy of many nations stressing that as a major raw material in confectionary industries
He stated that cocoa remains one of the crops which is amongst items on the hotlist of global demand adding that the installation of an Ultra Modern Cocoa Processing Industry in Ikom by the Ayade administion upon kick-off,shall reduce poverty among young people to the lowest ebb.
Ofuka averred that in less than no time, Industries whose major product is chocolate bars would leave the continent of Asia, America and Europe in search of the raw material that would be found in Cross River State, stressing that by so doing a lot of revenue exchange would acrue to economy of the state due to the cocoa beans produced by farmers in the state.
“From the bumper yield recorded at the Demonstration Farm at CRBC, Calabar, it has been, sufficiently, proven that the soil of the Southern Senatorial Zone of Cross River State does even far better in Cocoa than the Central
According to the SA, “Cross River State government has brought a new improved specie of Cocoa known as the TC2, a hybrid between the Amazon and our local specie with just 18 months gestation period bio-genetically engineered by the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN).
” This specie is, usually, short in height, but with almost five times yields, as compared to our local specie”. He maintained.
Ayade’s SA stressed that with cocoa the effect of loss of oil rich Bakassi Peninsula ceded to neighboring Cameroon and subsequent loss of 76 oil wells by the state to a sister state of Akwa Ibom state would no longer be felt despite the fact that it’s painful.
In attendance were, royal fathers from Cross River Southern Senatorial district led by His Royal Majesty, Murray Munene Okon Eyo, the Paramount Head of the Efut Combined Assembly as the Chairman of the event, amongst other monarchs.
The monarch ceremoniously, opened the Cocoa Demonstration Farm and immediately led the harvest of the Cocoa Pods that were later distributed to local farmers for nursery.
Ofuka however announced that the next zone where the event will take place is the central and that the old specie of Cocoa shall be replaced with the New-Improved variety across the entire state stressing that in a no distant time, Cross River shall be reputed as the highest producer of Cocoa in Nigeria to make the country rank with cocoa Producing nations like Cote’Ivore, Indonesia and Brazil.