By Jimoh Babatunde

With over 15 years experience in the agricultural industry as a plantation developer, Dr Emmanuel Awelewa, has monitored and extensively managed various oil palm plantations within and outside the country and he is currently working on 4,500 hectares of oil palm plantation in Oban Local Government Area, in Cross River State, Nigeria.

In addition, Dr. Awelewa has been practising sustainable mechanised and climate-smart agriculture with highly improved oil palm seedlings for many years but his annual yields have been relatively low, considering the level of standard inputs and efforts he put into the business.

Pests and oil palm diseases have been responsible for the annual losses and low yields to meet the high demands of Crude Palm Oil, CPO, locally and internationally.

His first contact with Bayer Nigeria in 2017 marked a change for Dr Awelewa when Andrew Osho, one of Bayer sales representatives in Nigeria introduced him to Bayer Crop Protection Products for his plantation.

He decided to try it out by purchasing two different protection products: Alion Herbicide and Confidor Insecticide, which he carefully mixed with the appropriate water quantity, and sprayed on his plantation as directed by Andrew.

During harvest, Dr Awelewa’s farm output increased from 12 MT/Ha to 19 MT/Ha. He then decided to apply the same crop protection products (Alion and Confidor) on another low-yielding plantation in 2018 and he got an increase in yields from 3 MT/Ha to about 8 MT/Ha on that land.

His improved harvest and crops have increased sales, hence making him earn more profits and also meet the local and international demands of CPO.

Dr Awelewa stated that using the Bayer crop protection products have saved him the stress and time of combining various brands of crop protection products that have to be sprayed on the farm repeatedly; at different times only to achieve low yields.

Bayer crop protection products have also reduced the cost of labour because they work with better efficiency thereby enabling him to save more money to develop new sites even outside the region.

“The relationship we share with Bayer Nigeria has been very rewarding and cordial,” said Dr Awelewa, affirming that Bayer Nigeria has indeed helped in “revolutionizing” his business through their “outstanding, efficient and eco-friendly” crop protection products, giving him the chance to reach out to other farmers and plantation developers to demonstrate the secret of his astonishing success.

Vanguard News Nigeria