Dr. Peter Aikpokpodion, winner of the Norman E. Borlaug Leadership Enhancement in Agriculture Program (LEAP) fellowship in Summer 2006, is today the Team Leader of the Cocoa Value Chain Development Program administered through the Ministry of Agriculture.  

The government is distributing 3.6 million hybrid cocoa pods to farmers in an effort to increase production and export.   In his position at the Ministry, Dr. Aikpokpodion is responsible for coordinating the training of over 70,000 farmers and providing support to cooperative groups.  

In this interview with Journalists as captured here by JIMOH BABATUNDE, he  reveals that cocoa productivity is gradually on the increase as the Agricultural Transformation Agenda is laying a solid foundation for an agro-industrialised economy,just as he added that  a commodity corporation will be establish this year.

Here is an excerpt.

On the increase of cocoa production between 2011 and 2013

AS of the time we started in 2011, when the Minister, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, took charge of the ministry, he set out clear goals for the cocoa sector through the Agricultural Transformation Agenda, which we call Cocoa Transformation Agenda. And we think that, at a particular point, we were to double cocoa production in Nigeria from 250,000 to 500,000 metric tonnes by 2015. That was the goal the minister set for the cocoa sector.

In 2012, we recorded an increase and the record provided by the Federal Produce Inspection Service, which is domiciled with the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment, provided the figure of cocoa expert, which was 300,000 metric tonnes.

It also gave us a figure of 350,000 metric tonnes, as of July, as the 2013 production figure. So, you can see how gradually we have improved and consistently from 250,000 metric tonnes in 2011 to 350,000 metric tonnes in 2013, which means 100,000 metric tonnes have been added.

On the factors responsible for the growth

As you know, some of the developments did not happen overnight. It only shows the impact of the action plan for the cocoa sector in terms of government policies on the aspect of support programmes, which is the Cocoa Growth Enhancement Scheme (GES), which is different from the regular GES.

Not only that, there is now a very strong awareness among farmers that, indeed, farming is business and people see it in that light and set to make investment in cocoa farming   and   its main value chains. So, the market is there and farmers have been motivated to go into this. So, there is greater investment and production.

On the difference between the GES programme for cocoa and other arable crops

The GES programme is tailored to meet the critical needs of the cocoa farmer; the critical inputs that a cocoa farmer needs, such as agro-chemicals against black pod, insects that attack and also  fertiliser to make sure the cocoa trees produce well, even though farmers before now have not been using fertilser, because from the study we carried out, not many Nigerian farmers used fertiliser.

I can tell you, last year, we succeeded for the first time to introduce a specifically formulated fertiliser for cocoa. This is the cocoa fertiliser which was brought to the country and it is part of the efforts of the transformation agenda to make Nigeria farmers to use fertilser.

So, you can see the need of cocoa farmers — agro-chemicals, fertiliser and improved seeds/seedlings.     These are not just what they used to plant, which were unselected materials.

Now there is a deliberate attempt to provide our farmers highly superior cocoa varieties. So, unlike the general GES which provides seeds and fertilser to farmers, cocoa farmers get agro-chemicals, insecticides, fungicides and they get cocoa fertiliser as well as hybrid pods.

On plans for Nigeria to catch up with Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire in cocoa production

That is a fact that Nigeria production is now is 350,000 tonnes. We are behind what Ghana produces. Ghana produces between 850,000 tonnes and 1.0 million now, and Cote d’Ivoire produces between 1.2 and 1.4 million.

Definitely, that is clear and Nigeria lags behind them. The way we are approaching this is not about competing, but it’s about taking a greater share of the world cocoa market. Now, I can tell you, the cocoa market is such that cocoa beans done account just for about 10 per cent of the whole market value.

Adding value to cocoa raises the market share you get and so, in Nigeria, some concept of the philosophy of the minister is to see how he will move our farmers from the farm gate to the factory gate. It is not just producing cocoa beans, though that is important. We need to increase our production, but he has seen it in a business perspective. What percentage of the global market value or per share of that do we have?

And so our effort is not just concentrating on production, it is along the whole value chain in terms of marketing, processing and adding value right here. There are a lot of efforts in that regard. So, the strategy we are adopting in Nigeria is not about competing with some countries.

It is not about how do we close the gap and how do we meet them.   We adopt a different strategy that gives our farmers, that gives our value chain operators, greater share of the market value of the global market.

So, in term of production, which is of course one of those elements, we are growing this and I told you it moved from 250,000 to 350,000 metric tonnes from 2011 to 2013. That was 100,000 tonnes in two years.

Now, the other aspect is the processing. Grinding cocoa locally, processing it into cocoa liquor, cocoa butter and cocoa cake increase the market value more than just the cocoa bean alone. In fact, as I have told you, as part of our efforts, we are facilitating state governments and investors to even take us to the end of the chain in terms of making chocolates.

So, you can see the strategy. The strategy   is business strategy, increasing the value of the cocoa we should get from the cocoa value chain and then in that wise, we should focus not just on production but also on processing and marketing to ensure that our farmers and our value chain operators have better market share of the global value of cocoa.

On efforts at encouraging local cocoa utilisation and consumption

I will like to corroborate your point that, indeed, local consumption till now is still low, but I can tell you that it is on the increase. We will not forget to appreciate the efforts of the National Cocoa Development Committee, which was set up during the time of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

One major aspect of the work of the committee was to encourage local consumption of cocoa and this culminated in the production of a booklet called, ‘Have you had your cocoa today?’ And that was just to tell you the efforts and I can tell you that the efforts have really helped to increase and create some awareness of the health and nutritional benefits of cocoa

Yes, it is still low; that is the truth, but I can tell you that some progress has been made. From 0 to 0.5 per cent is something. You know what I mean, but, however, a lot of work still needs to be done, but I can tell you one major effort in this regard is a partnership with the state government to kind of encourage them to incorporate cocoa drinks into school feeding programmes, into hospitals and all that.

But, you see, beyond the paper work, there is the need for serious investment into this. I can tell you we appreciate what some state governments are doing, like Osun State government in term of school feeding scheme. Cocoa is so rich with over 250 different elements good for the mental and physical health; your heart also; that Osun State government can add it to what they are doing currently in their school feeding   programme to encourage the consumption of cocoa.

Another area I can tell you that something is coming up now is with this last year, we got the commitment of Ondo State government to really encourage consumption of cocoa beans and cocoa products within the state and the government is making conscious efforts in this regard and I am sure this will begin to unfold in 2014.

In doing this, we can tell you there are efforts to really present the cocoa products in a way that fits into the way of our people. You know culture plays a role in what people eat and your eating habit. I can tell you that, in Brazil, there was a conscious effort over a period of 10 years or so to encourage local consumption of their cocoa, to the extent that today, Brazil imports at least 67,000 metric tonnes of cocoa annually to augment what they have in order to meet consumption demand of Brazilians.

This is one area that the government and the private sector must really work on. Getting local consumption increased is really critical.

On the success story of the newly introduced high-yielding and early-fruiting cocoa varieties

Let me tell you that what we are doing now in ATA is laying a very solid foundation for the future for both now and future of various segments of the economy in terms of the commodities.

Now, what we are doing at the cocoa sector is this. You know cocoa is a long-term crop. Cocoa is a permanent crop that exists for 30 to 50 years or more.   So, the Minister embarks on what we called recapitalisation of cocoa plantations.