Boosting oil palm industry amid funding, land challenges | The Guardian Nigeria News - Nigeria and World News

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Oil palm entrepreneurs and researchers have called on the government to remove hurdles and create more enabling environment for investors and smallholder farmers in the subsector.

These, they said, could be done with specialised funding, more access to land and support for small, medium and large-scale investors in terms of improved seedlings, processing equipment and technical know-how throughout the value chain.

Also, smuggling of crude palm oil in commercial quantity through the Republic of Benin, especially before the closure of some land borders in 2019, was pinpointed as a disincentive to local investors and the backward integration policy aimed at revving up local production of crude palm oil and phasing out importation.

True-to-type Tenera hybrid seedlings usually start fruiting from four to five years, and the nuts are bigger, productivity is higher and profitability is sustainable. He admitted that knowing the deficit in production and how to evaluate and collate production figure in crude palm oil production were needed, ‘’but it is difficult, and so planning for development is hampered.’’

He too said access to quality planting materials should be made easier, and cost should be subsidised by the palm oil-producing states and the Federal Government, among other support to POFON. He also identified lack of access to land in commercial quantity as a challenge, saying: “The second is ensuring availability of land. We have the land, but the challenge is how to take peaceful possession of the land. Even potential investors with requisite financial capital find it difficult to acquire land.”

‘’We have to rejig the strategy to allocate or facilitate funding to small and medium-scale farmers considering the gestation period of oil palm trees. Really, policies have come up without the inputs of POFON and other oil palm associations that control the small-scale farmers,’’ he said. ‘’This is the first phase, as we are still looking for more land in the Ovia axis and as soon as this is completed, we will commence the second phase of allocation.

 

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