farm |
The Raw Materials Research and
Development Council (RMRDC) has distributed 10,000 seedlings of improved
variety of oil palm known as Tenera to farmers’ associations and
cooperative societies for the 2017 planting season.
Speaking at the presentation ceremony
recently in Abuja, the Director-General/CEO of RMRDC, Dr. H. D. Ibrahim,
said the distribution of the seedlings was targeted at boosting the
production of agricultural raw materials for industrial use.
The DG who was represented by Dr. A. A.
Ogunwusi, Director of Agriculture and Agro-Allied Department, said RMRDC
had also distributed crops such as soybeans, groundnuts and other types
of oil seeds to farmers so as to increase the production of high
quality raw materials for use in the vegetable oil sub-sector of the
national economy.
“The underlying objectives are to reduce
importation and to promote diversification of the economy in order to
save foreign exchange, create employment and to enhance development of
the food, chemicals and pharmaceutical industries in Nigeria,” the DG
pointed out.
Dr. Ibrahim further disclosed that under
the Presidential Initiative, a programme to cultivate one million
hectares of oil palm in five years was proposed, out of which 900,000
hectares are earmarked for smallholders, while 100,000 hectares are for
large estates.
He said RMRDC was currently
collaborating with private sector investors, NIFOR and members of the
pharmaceutical sub-sector of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria
(MAN) to establish fatty alcohol and glycerine plants in the country and
to use raw materials produced by farmers.
In a presentation at the event, the DG
Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR), Dr. Omorefe Asemota,
who was represented by an official of the institute, said Nigeria being
the fifth producer of oil palm in the world, produced one million tonnes
per annum with a low yield of about one tonne per hectare.
He noted that the improved oil palm
seedlings distributed to farmers matured in two and a half years and
yielded between 20 to 25 tonnes per hectares of palm fruits, which
translated to between four and five tonnes of palm oil per
Igwe Hilary Uche, the National President
of Oil Palm Growers Association of Nigeria (OPGAN), said the gesture
was a welcome development for oil palm production in the country, adding
that the industry could create 10 million jobs in the country.
On his part, the President, National
Palm Produce Association of Nigeria, Engineer Henry Olatujoye, appealed
to the council to make the gesture a yearly affair, adding that the
council should also help in the area of data capturing of farmers in the
country.
Engr Olatujoye also called on NIFOR to do more in getting improved seedlings to farmers.
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