Solidaridad Nigeria distributes oil palm seedlings Cross River farmers
Group gives 12,000 improved oil palm seedlings to Cross River farmers ahead planting season
[From ANIEKAN ANIEKAN, Calabar]
Civil society organization, the Solidaridad Nigeria, has distributed 12,000 improved oil palm seedlings to farmers in Cross River State.
The seedlings are distributed to farmers at no cost and is aimed at greening the environment, providing carbon cover as well as enhancing the income of oil palm farmers in the state
Programme Manager, Oil Palm Country Management Lead, Solidaridad Nigeria, Kenechukwu Onukwube, stated that with the 12,000 seedlings distributed, farmers in the state can turnaround their fortunes if they adopt best management practices taught them by experts from his organisation.
In his words: “The objective of the seedling distribution is to mark the roll out of the seedling season for transplanting oil palm from nursery to the field.
“We hope to achieve three things: contribute to greening the country’s landscape using oil palm.
“This will help to capture some hectares where forests have been depleted.
“Secondly, with more green places, there will be a reduction in green house gasses because of carbon cover.
“In addition, we hope to significantly enhance income of oil palm farmers across the state”, he said.
He said that through oil palm seedlings planting, Solidaridad would have succeeded in triming the country’s landscape using oil palm and replace degraded forest.
State chairman Oil Palm Growers Association of Nigeria OPGAN Rev. Ojikpong Nyiam-Bissong called on residents of the state to embrace oil palm production to enable them have multiple streams of income.
He said oil palm is more expensive than crude oil and oil palm cultivation can help break the shackles of poverty troubling many households in the country.
He also welcomed the contribution of Solidaridad to the oil palm sector in the state, saying the Best Management Practices they introduced has upscaled production.
