Take our cocoa revolution message to your subjects, C’River govt charges traditional rulers
From Aniekan Aniekan, Calabar
The Cross River State Government has charged the traditional leaders of Calabar South to take cocoa revolution message to their subjects.
Dr. Oscar Ofuka, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Cocoa Development and Control gave the charge while harvesting cocoa at the Cross River Broadcasting Corporation (CRBC) Cocoa Demonstration Farm in Calabar.
The farm was cultivated less than two years ago and was aimed at appraising the suitability of cocoa cultivation in the southern part of the state.
According to Dr. Ofuka, “as oil dependence navigates the nation’s economy into dusk of uncertainty, Governor Ben Ayade’s agro industrial initiative has lightened the fuse for an explosive rediscovery of new economic opportunities for Cross River State and the country at large.
“This new economic trajectory of migrating away from non-renewable, but exhaustive fossil fuel and gas to agro-industrial-driven economy, is witnessing a rebirth in Cross River State under the watch of Governor Ayade.
“This novel initiative is sustained by the extant principle of comparative advantage and the state is set to take a lead among the comity of subnational governments by standing very tall in a highly competitive global market,” he said.
He added that Prof.Ayade’s ingenious cocoa initiative comes with a value-chain that has the potentials to take many jobless people off the streets.
He also added that from the bumper yield recorded at the Demonstration Farm at CRBC, Calabar, it has been, sufficiently, proven that the soil of the Southern Senatorial Zone of Cross River State does even far better in cocoa than the Central.
He stressed that the state government has brought new improved specie of cocoa known as the TC2, a hybrid between the Amazon and the local specie with just 18 months gestation period.
This species, he said, has been bio-genetically engineered by the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN), usually, short in height, but with almost five times yields, as compared to the local specie.
In his response, His Royal Majesty, Muri Munene Maurice Okon Eyo, the Paramount Head of the Efut Combined Assembly said they are overwhelmed by the success of the CRBC Cocoa Demonstration Farm.
He said having personally planted the cocoa and participated in its harvesting, he will take the message back to his subjects.
He encouraged the people of the Southern Senatorial Zone to key into this new opportunity brought by Governor Ayade and be defocused from the white collar job that promises nothing but bleak economic future and uncertainty.
