Osun State government has identified over 60 million active cocoa trees across her 30 local government councils. Governor Rauf Aregbesola, who disclosed this in Oshogbo, the state capital, said that revenue from cocoa and other prominent farms produce would assist in turning around the economy and fortunes of the state if pursued with renewed vigor.
Aregbesola assured that his administration would leave no stone unturned to make the state great again, hence the recent investment and research into Cocoa production and the focus on other areas of agriculture.
The governor stated that for the state to start on a good footing at producing ‘Cocoa Omoluabi,’ it has enumerated and identified 60 million active cocoa trees in the state. Aregbesola, while meeting with Cocoa Produce Merchants in the state at the Government House Banquet Hall in Osogbo, stated that with new cocoa development initiatives in the state, there would be a new cash inflow making the economy of the state prosperous.
He stated that the state had also gone further in her bid to boost cocoa production and agriculture with the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) on the development of agriculture for massive food production as alternative to reliance on oil.
The agreement, according to Aregbesola, involved releasing of 204.39 hectares of land in Ago Owu Farm Settlement to IITA for research and setting up demonstration farms.
IITA will also carry out cassava, plantain and other crops multiplication, including cocoa, as well as train the youths in the state in modern, commercial and profitable farming.
Aregbesola emphasised that the state, in her bid to increase Internally Generated Revenue, would establish commodity board that will be supervised directly by the office of the governor to ensure Osun ranked among the best cocoa producers in Nigeria within the next two years.
He told the produce merchants that the economic situation of the state had been badly affected with the pillaging of the national treasury by the previous administration.
Aregbesola added that with the drop in oil prices and the sharp reduction in the Federation Accounts from N1.2 trillion in 2012 to N369 billion in November, the allocations shared in December 2015 had reduced the running of government to little or nothing, hence the need to look inward in increasing the IGR.
The governor noted that the state would soon bounce back with the identification of 60 million cocoa trees presently in the state, adding that government henceforth would criminalise any action of farmers and merchants that ran afoul of government laws on cocoa.