Lagos, Sept 19 - Nigeria's 2008/09 cocoa main crop due to be harvested within weeks, is seen much better than the previous season output, boosted by good rain and sunshine in the last month, Cocoa Association of Nigeria (CAN) said on Thursday.
Nigeria, the world's number four grower, has seen a steady rise in annual output since the government launched a cocoa revival programme in 2005 to significantly increase production over the next few years.
The programme involves subsidising agro-chemicals and supplying high-yield seedlings free to farmers. The trees flower within 18-20 months instead of the traditional 3-5 years. It also aims to promote the local processing of cocoa and to raise domestic consumption of cocoa products.
"We are expecting a good season because rainfall has been alright and sunshine has been good. This has helped the trees develop many pods," said Afun Adegbulu, national president of the CAN, a grouping of farmers, buyers, exporters and grinders.
Analsyts said they expected an increase of about 15 percent on the 2007/08 crop because more new plantations and replanted farms have mautured, while more growers have embraced new farming techniques through the government's Farmers Field School set up so far in about half of Nigeria's 20 cocoa growing states.
"If the weather remains favourable, with the training that farmers are getting, there should be an increase of at least 15 percent on last year's output," commodity consultant Robo Adhuze told Reuters.
NO WHITE-COLLAR JOBS
Strong international prices have also encouraged farmers to take better care of their plantations, while rising local consumption of cocoa-based products which has boosted domestic prices, has attracted more educated youths who otherwise would have sought white-collar jobs, to turn to cocoa growing.
"The government has offered a lot of incentives which the youths have taken advantage of, they are no longer waiting to work in offices. More and more youths are now into cocoa farming," Paul Ojong, national vice president of CAN said.
Harvesting the October-March main crop has already started on a small scale in the main southwestern growing region and is expected to pick up by mid-October.
"The next crop should be good from what we have seen on our farms, the quantum of rain has been beneficial," said Isiaka Yusuf, managing director of Nigeria's top cocoa processor, Multi-Trex, which operates farms in the southwest.
Main crop harvesting started much earlier in the remote state of Cross River, Nigeria's second biggest grower on the southeastern border with Cameroon.
Initial reports of the fungal black pod disease on some plantations in the southwest were contained by massive spraying of trees, further raising hopes of a good harvest.
But there were still concerns the high cost and scarcity of agro-chemicals could encourage the spread of black pod in the southeast, a thick rainforest region, where the usually heavy downpours provide conditions for the fungal disease to thrive, farmers said.