‘Why you should invest in coconut’

The National President of the National Coconut Producers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria (NACOPPMAN), Nma Okoroji, has stressed the need for investors within and outside the country to invest in the development of the coconut sub-sector.

Okoroji, in an interview with FarmingFarmersFarms, said that the coconut sub-sector is 80 per cent untapped in Nigeria and that investing in the crop is investing in the future generation. She said that the association wants state governments to key into its Coconut Sufficiency in Nigeria (COSIN), a strategic plan by 2027, which envisioned 10,000 hectares of coconut trees planted in each of the coconut viable states. According to Okoroji, one hectare of coconut plantation employs nothing less than 10 youths, while 10,000 hectares employs 100,000 youths. “Our target as an association is for at least 32 states in the country to have 10,000 hectares of land for planting of coconut and each family is planting three coconut in their environment, this can turn around the economy of the country” while calling for support in the area of inputs, stressing that seedlings are so expensive; as it is not like the maize seedlings or rice seedlings.

“The hybrid seedlings for coconut are expensive, also in planting it, you need the best input, the agrochemicals; it has to be organic, and you know organic farming is capital intensive. If you don’t plant it organically, it would deplete the health of the soil, which you need to protect for the next 80 years for the coconut to thrive better. We can achieve COSIN in this country, we have what it takes, we have the manpower, we have the raw materials, and we have the labour. God has blessed us with good weather and we have more land than these countries we are importing these raw materials from. It is a sin for us to be importing what we can be exporting and bring a turn around to our economy. Now if you look at the logo of NACOPPMAN, you will see Nigeria being placed in a global map by this vision, we want to place Nigeria on the global map using coconut because God has naturally blessed us with all that it takes for this tree to grow well and do better here. Speaking further, he said coconut had to be promoted as a national crop because it is a cash crop that every part of it is money. No part of the coconut is useless. How much is a barrel of crude compared to a barrel of coconut oil? Coconut oil is three times more expensive than the barrel of oil, so why are we wasting our energy on something that is not productive”, she added.