The Jigawa Chapter of National Coconut Producers, Processors and Marketers Association (NACOPPMAN), on Tuesday inaugurated the 2021 coconut planting season in the state.
The Coordinator of the association, Sakina Muhammad, stated this during the exercise with the theme ‘One family, three coconut trees’, in Dutse.
Muhammad said that the gesture was aimed at having coconut sufficiency in Nigeria by 2027.
“The parent body of this association is the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment.
“Coconut is a tropical plant that can grow anywhere under any condition and Jigawa happened to be among the states in the north where the cultivation of coconuts thrives,’’ Muhammad said.
She said that coconut has become a major foreign exchange earner for countries that produce it in large quantity.
The coordinator quoted the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Sabo Nanono, as saying that 653 billion nuts were produced in 2013, and Nigeria currently produces 265,000 metric tonnes.
According to her, this makes Nigeria the 18th producer of coconuts in the world.
She said that the continuous dwindling of income from oil in Nigeria, informed the need to look at ways of earning foreign exchange from other sources, hence the need to boost the production of crops like coconut.
“A barrel of coconut oil in the international market today stands at 12 dollars per barrel, while a barrel of crude oil is oscillating between six to seven dollars per barrel.
“It will interest you to know that four litres of palm oil is N5, 000 while the four litres of coconut oil is N15, 000.
“It is the capacity of coconut to be hard foreign exchange earner that informed the decision of NACOPPMAN to coin the slogan of planting 10,000 hectares per state.
“And it is in this regard that the national president of NACOPPMAN, Mrs Nna Okoji appealed to state governments to allocate 10,000 hectares of land for the cultivation of coconut so that by 2030, Nigeria can attain self-sufficiency in coconut production,’’ she said.
Muhammad further stated that coconut can be used for eco-friendly bio fuel for cars.
She said there are ongoing researches on using coconut oil for treating cancer.
The chairman described the market for coconut both locally and internationally as huge, pointing out that a bag of coconut before COVID-19 pandemic was N8,000, but now N25,000.
According to her, coconut has over $400 billion market worldwide.
“Though, typical coconuts trees take five to seven years before yielding fruits, but it is an investment that’s worthwhile because once it starts, you will reap the benefits for between 60 and 80 years.
“And I have good news for those of you present here today. I am pleased to inform you that the specie of coconut we are inaugurating today is the typical Malaysian dream dwarf coconut plant that produces more than a 100 fruits in a tree, annually.
“And this variety produces fruit within three years.
“At this point, I want to specifically appreciate the support given to NACOPPMA by the Federal University Dutse, Jigawa Ministries of Works and Housing, Agriculture and Rural Development, as well as Jigawa Rural Development Agency,’’ said the coordinator.
She urged people to invest in coconuts farming as it has short and long term benefits.
Muhammad said that 1,000 farmers were registered by the group in the state for the exercise.
She assured that they would be linked up with Nigeria Incentives-Based Risk Sharing system for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) to access loans.
