** To create 60,000 jobs
By Atabor Julius.
In his determination to complement government’s effort to ensure food sufficiency, the president of Stocks and Minas Agricultural Advocacy Networks Africa (SMAANA), Idoko Joseph has launched a 10,000 hectares oil palm plantations in Amaka, Igalamela Odolu LGA of Kogi state.
The President, during the foundation laying ceremony over the weekend, noted that the SMAANA initiative is to bridge the wide gap of palm oil demands and the supply and to generate employment for the teeming youths of the country.
Idoko disclosed that the recent ban on the importation of palm oil has placed responsibility on the local farmers to meet the shortfall, stressing that his initiative is to leverage on the opportunity to revolutionize palm oil production in the country.
He explained that before the ban on the importation of palm oil, the country used to be a net importer of about 55% of her domestic use, causing several billions naira to be spent on importation to meet the shortfall.
According to him “every household of about five persons consume 96 liters of palm oil annually. We have 24 branded vegetable oils in the market and each brand contained 75% palm oil as ingredients. With the 175million estimated population of Nigeria and if multiplied by five persons per household, it will give you 35 million households, then multiply by 96 liters per annum will translate to 3,360, 000 metric tons per annum.
“To meet this demand, we need a minimum of 750, 000 hectares of palm oil between 2019 to 2029 an equivalent of 75 hectares annually to cushion the effect of the embargo,” he informed.
He added that SMAANA, which is a non governmental organisation for agricultural advocacy, has also designed a tree crop expansion model known as Oil Palm Estate Partnership Investment Development Initiative (OPESIDI) to complement government’s policies for the growth of tree crops in the country.
He added that the OPESIDO is determined to key into the Next Level Agenda of the Federal Government and the New Direction Agenda of the state government to create sustainable oil palm value chain.
Idoko noted that a hectare of oil palm is capable of employing permanent six workers adding that his ten thousand hectares will translate to employing over 60, 000 permanent workers.
He added that a hectare will equally produce 18 tons of fresh bunches per annum when milled under 18% extraction rate will produce six tons of special palm oil annually hinting that the 100 hectares of oil palm plantations rake in more revenue than a crude oil well.
According to him to achieve this objective, a forestry Mulcher which is an earth moving equipment designed for bush clearing against the use of tractors that damages soil structures.
He lamented that with the importance of forest mulcher which can clear five hectares of agricultural land per day, there is no single mulcher in the country.
He assured farmers that his organisation has secured 18 pieces of Mulchers at a cost of one billion, six hundred and fifty million naira (1,650,000,000) which will be shipped into the country by AnozerEnergy Global of Florida, USA.
While explaining the OPESIDI initiative, Idoko said it was aimed at expanding the tree crops and alternative retirement investment scheme for workers in both public and private sectors.
He said under the initiative, farmers are referred to as indirect farmers or investors as they can remain in the comfort of their homes and finance the project from salaries while employing farmer to work on their behalf on the farms.
He appealed to Governor Yahaya Bello to approve the issuance of the Certificate of Occupancy ( C of O) on the 10,000 hectares to enable the early take off the project.
Meanwhile, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele commended SMAANA for the initiative to revolutionise oil palm production, saying the Bank will give necessary support for the project.
The Governor, who was represented by Pastor John Alfa, disclosed that CBN in order to ensure food security had initiated various agricultural projects such as Anchor Borrowers Scheme and Cluster Farming through which it has disbursed over N30bn that has enhance food productivity across the country.
He said with the annual oil demand of 2.5 metric tons and the internal production of 1.3 metric tons leaving a short fall of 1.2 metric tons for importation leaves much to be desired.
He added that the oil palm initiative of the CBN is to close the gap and to ensure export, hinting that it targets the cultivation of 1.4 hectares to be cultivated in two years.
The Governor disclosed that the Bank had met with 14 governors from the North and they have agree to make land available for the project adding that the Local Government Councils from Kogi East have equally agreed to make hectares of land available for the project.
He called on the host communities to adopt the project as theirs and to ensure collaboration with the organisation to open the flood gates of opportunities for them.
Alfa, who initially exercised restraints over the proposal because of the past experiences, have to give maximum support for the sincerity and commitment of the promoter.
In a remarks, the Onuh Amaka, Chief Noah Simeon Uyah said the entire communities were enveloped in happiness for the project to be flagged off in his domain.
He said the Amaka Communities have for a long time been caged in poverty and underdevelopment which the project has come to change the fortune of the people, pledged unalloyed support for its actualization.
He commended the CBN and SMAANA for the project and said the entire communities were happy to donate 10,000 hectares of their land and appealed to Governor Bello to speed up the granting of Cof O.
