CRIN@ 50 our achievement- Prof. Malachy Akoroda

As Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN) clocks fifty years of establishment last year December, the Executive Director of the Institute, Professor Malachy Akorada has expressed happiness on the achievement being recorded so far but pointed that more is still needed to be done with the financial support of the government and private sector. 

In his chat with Food Farm News in his office, the Executive Director, CRIN Prof. Akoroda said a lot have been achieved in the last 50 years through the mandate crops of the Institute especially in the area of improve technologies to farmers, processors and marketers who have lots of our products on sales stressed that more support must be given to the Institute by both the government and Nigerian private sector saying “it is what you invest that you harvest, and where there is no investment, the harvest is always small, but my prayer and hope is that Nigeria government, Nigerian private sector must begin to invest more and more in tree crops so as to prevent from dependency  on outsiders to produce what we will consume”

CRIN boss emphasized the need to support the expansion of cocoa in the country with injection of youths to replace the older farmers saying the increase in the global demand for chocolate consumption is a good index of measurement which must propel the increase in production using improved varieties. He stated that “cocoa worldwide is good commodity for commerce. Why? India is in love with chocolate, China also, and by year 2020, there will be shortage of cocoa up to one million metric ton. The numbers of countries that must produce this cocoa includes Nigeria which is the fourth position in the world rating and this is the reason why support must be given for its expansion so as to meet the higher demand”

On youth employment, Prof Akoroda demanded more motivation by way of reduction on cost of production, processing, transportation and marketing saying ” present owners of cocoa farms are old and needed replacement. When they retired, to whom do they hand over the work? This should be a priority issue for government, private sector and farmers themselves. I think I am convinced that except you have enough facility for young entrepreneur to enter cocoa industry, there will be a time when old ones will step aside and there will be nobody to continue the cocoa revolution that has already started”

Speaking on grafting of new breeds of cocoa with the old ones he said that “we know that the old farms can be rehabilitated. New cocoa varieties can be grafted into the old ones. We do not have to cut off the old plantation. When the new one grows and develop, then you can prone out the old shots so as to allow the new shots of the new varieties to grow. Doing this will make both the old trees and the new breeds to be useful”

On his achievements since 2012 he said that “since we came in 2012 till now, at least over 15 million planted high breed cocoa materials have been given out to farmers across the producing states of the federation. We can also say the improved technologies knowledge on cocoa and other mandate crops have been transferred through training to beneficiaries in the rural areas through the train the trainers’ process. If you want to talk about impact, we will say farmers are now better informed as they have better improved materials and skill on how to use them.

 So if CRIN has been able to give better know how and better materials, then we will say all that is expected of the Institute has been delivered. I will not say we have not improved the buildings, increased the laboratories and the roads are better. I will not say we now have more water supply, electricity with inverter and solar system. We have more computer system and our staffs are better aware of the International expectations”