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Nigeria’s coconut industry is badly hurt by lack of investments that have seen many trees age in the last five years.
Despite the potential of coconut production, Nigeria is yet to fully harness the economic benefits from growing the crop on the account of ageing trees and low quality seeds, stakeholders say.
This has limited the country’s ability to increase production and generate foreign exchange from a crop that has huge FX potential.
“There have been no huge investments in the coconut sub-sector despite the much talk about agric diversification. Most of the trees are old as a result and it has limited our ability to increase production,” Mufutau Akinlolu, president, Coconut Growers Association in Badagary, told BusinessDay in a telephone response to questions.
“The government needs to invest in new trees and fertilisers to increase yield per hectare and also in the value chain. There is very little investment in coconut processing as well,” Akinlolu said.
Akinlolu stated that for the country to increase its production of the coconut crop, the government must increase investments in the crop and address the issue of land acquisition, which he noted is the biggest challenge confronting farmers.
Coconut serves as a raw material for numerous industries such as the pharmaceutical, cosmetics and food and beverage with limitless domestic and export potential.
The crop is grown in 22 of the 36 states in the country with Lagos State having the largest production area.
According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FOA), Nigeria produces about 267,520 metric tonnes of coconut in 2014 and occupying the 18 position of the world coconut production index.
Another factor limiting the potential of the industry is that the sub-sector still remains unattractive to Nigeria’s young population.
“Young people are not coming into coconut farming because the investment requirement is huge and getting land in the coastal areas for coconut production is difficult,” said Oluseun Akintobi, a coconut farmer in Badagary area.
“The government is not doing anything for us. How can the youths start farming coconut when you cannot find quality seeds for planting in the market?”Akintobi asked.
He urged the government to revive the coconut industry, stating that the crop has the potential to earn huge foreign exchange for Nigeria and also called for the empowerment of farmers, especially youths, so they can have the financial requirement needed to go into farming the crop.
Clestine Ikuenobe, director of research, Nigeria Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR) said, “It is a crop in which the country should exploit its comparative advantage because it can be grown in 22 states. It grows very well mostly in coastal regions.”
The price of the crop has increased by 7.1 percent from $1,571 in April to an average of $1,682.5 per metric ton in May, according to data obtained from Index Mundi.
Josephine Okojie
