THE Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi (Ojaja II), on Monday unveiled anursery plant of one million cocoa pots and trees in the farmland of Ile-Ife, describing it the first phase of the targeted 10 million cocoa seedlings aimed at empowering shortlisted 100, 000 youths and widows.
In a statement issued by the monarch’s director of media and public affairs, Comrade Moses Olafare, development was borne out of the need to tackle unemployment among Nigerian youths and also to create economic lifeline for widows affected by communal hostilities between Ile-Ife and Modakeke many years back.
According to the statement, which was made available to the Tribune Online in Osogbo yesterday, “saddened by the unwarranted economically suicidal neglect of cocoa farming, which was once a major foreign earning in Nigeria especially in the Southwest, Oba Ogunwusi, who is the grand patron of the Graduate Farmers Association of Nigeria has imperatively chosen agriculture, cocoa to be specific, which now sells for about $3,000 dollars per tonne as a perfect alternative to the dwindling crude oil now selling below $40 dollars per barrel.”
The statement reads in part, “having identified agriculture as a veritable tool for enhancing living standard and wealth creation for the youth, we are leaving no stone unturned in this embarked scheme of the largest cocoa plantation nursery in Nigeria, targeting 10 million trees rolling in one million phases with the youths to get 2000 plants each from the nursery stage.”
“If we have stronger partnerships with government for it is a very capital intensive venture, it is not impossible to expand the cocoa plantation nursery to well over 100mllion trees to be spread across the entire country just to bring back cocoa days to this country again.
While disclosing that Oba Ogunwusi agricultural scheme was already attracting collaboration of Osun and Federal Governments, the statement added that
“the Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbe, had already given a nod of cooperation for our GREENFIELD to enjoy mechanisation to till the land for us to be able to plant the cash crop, the hybrids and the improved seedlings that will bring out 2000kilogramme to be harvested all year round.”
“We have Dynamic Green Concept Limited;a USA based company from Dallas for soil improvement.
We are in a strategic partnership with the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN). Ooni will also in June visit Hersey Chocolate factory in Philadelphia, which is America’s biggest chocolate factory for the supply of our cocoa beans and for further value addition to cocoa processing right here in Nigeria before exportation, which will provide further employment to the youths in Nigeria.”
