Yunus Abdulhamid & Victoria Awom
12 December 2008
The minister of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Dr Sayyadi Abba Ruma yesterday said the ministry has developed a ten year road map to ease and enhance cocoa production as an export produce from the country. He said a technical committee and stakeholders in cocoa production are currently going through the document which is expected to give a direction to the country from 2009 to 2018.
Abba Ruma was speaking in Abuja at the opening of 47th meeting of the National Cocoa Development Committee where he was represented by his minister of state, Demola Seriki.
He said the committee has been reorganised to galvanise private sector participation in the production of cocoa which used to be one of the major export for Nigeria before the discovery of crude oil.
"We recognise the challenges of cocoa production in the country at the moment which ranges from planting to harvesting, and we are working towards having zero burdens on the farmers. In the next ten years, the roadmap being worked upon gives the direction to achieve this," he said.
He said it is not true as speculated in some quarters that the ministry was not serious about the growth and development of cocoa but that all is being done to have better investment in the cash crop, saying, all stakeholders must and be seen to be serious without which the anticipated success will not be achieved.
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