A civil society organization, Solidaridad Nigeria, has distributed 36,000 improved variety oil palm seedlings each to Kogi, Enugu, Cross River and Akwa Ibom States.
Solidaridad, a solution-oriented civil society organisation, said the seedlings would help oil palm farmers in these states boost their production capacities as well as take themselves out from the shackles of poverty.
The programme manager, oil palm/country management lead, Solidaridad Nigeria Mr. Kenechukwu Onukwube, stated this at the flag off of improved variety oil palm seeds distribution in Calabar at weekend.
Onukwube stated that one of the objectives of the exercise is to contribute to greening the environment, reduced greenhouse gasses (GHG) and enhancing farmers income.
“What we are doing here today is what we will do in four other states namely Akwa Ibom, Kogi and Enugu.
“The objective of the seedling distribution is to mark the roll out of the seedling season for transplanting oil palm from nursery to the field.
“We hope to achieve three things: contribute to greening the country’s landscape using oil palm.
“This will help to capture some hectares where forests have been depleted.
“Second, with more green places, there will be a reduction in green house gasses because of carbon cover.”
