As the demand for palm oil increases both locally and internationally, OCP Africa Fertilizers Nigeria Limited (OCP Africa) has collaborated with the Institute of Agricultural Research and Training (IAR&T), National Institute for Horticultural Research (NIHORT) and National Institute for Oil pam Research (NIFOR) to support site and crop specific fertilizer formulations to enhancing soil fertility status and improving farmers’ productivity across the country.
Mohamed HETTITI, Managing Director, OCP Africa said that the collaboration is critical at this time as Nigeria continue to spend About $500million annually on the importation of palm oil adding that it has become economically imperative to increase effort to boost palm oil produce and stem the outflow of forex.
Addressing the stakeholders present at the signing ceremony in Abuja on Wednesday, HETTITI noted that the partnership is aimed at bringing specific response to Nigeria agriculture challenges and provide impactful and sustainable solutions to Nigerian food systems through science driven, sustainable and partnership driven.
“In a report published by PricewaterhouseCoopers Limited, the demand for Nigeria’s palm oil is now on the increase; however, Nigeria continues to spend about $500 million annually on importation of palm oil while consumption is rising at about 2.9 percent locally”.
He noted that the Nigeria’s tomato value chain has suffered setback leading to cases of lower supplies which does not meet the demand of consumers.
“In order to address these issues around tomato and oil palm production, the cooperation agreement being signed today is the cumulative result of a research work and several coordinated efforts between OCP Nigeria and our partners, we would continue to work together to develop specialty fertilizer for value chain crops across Nigeria”.
Caleb Usoh, Managing Director, OCP Nigeria, in his remark said that OCP aims to equip Nigeria farmers with the knowledge and capacity to practice sustainable plant nutrition and reduce nutrient loss by leveraging on research and development”.
“Let me reiterate the commitment of OCP AFRICA fertilizer Nigeria to the presidential fertilizer initiative and our continued support to the federal government of Nigeria in its unwavering desire to develop agriculture as the new black gold of Nigeria. OCP is building a socially, commercially and ecologically sustainable system to improve agricultu8tre across Nigeria”.
Abayomi Olaniyan, Executive Director, National Horticultural Research Institute said that the partnership is key to ensuring an improved productivity in the tomato value chain adding that the partnership offers the opportunity to meet the fertilizer need for improved production.
“NIHORT has the mandate of ensuring continuous availability and sustainability of the tomato produce across the country, and we will leverage on this opportunity to add value as well solve the challenges in the tomato value chain”.
Celetsine Ikwenobe, Executive Director, Nigeria institute for oil palm research (NIFOR) in his remark said that the partnership will ensure optimum productivity in the overall agriculture sector as there is an increased need for improved fertilizers by farmers.
“This project is key to the entire agricultural space as it will help to determine critical factors of nation’s agricultural production, such as, soil mapping, location, specialty fertilizer for oil palm production”.
Veronica Obatola, Executive Director, Institute of Agriculture, Research and Training said that the goal of the project is to develop soil information that will serve as a guide to develop specific fertilizer for land and areas under cultivation thereby creating multiplier effect of conserving the environment.
“This agreement is not only a significant milestone in the 3 national institutions but also a contribution to the research alignment within the agricultural promotion policy of the government, and the ambitious goal of meeting some of the SDGs that have to do with agricultural value chain and improved nutrition and livelihoods of Nigerians”.
“If we must bring about inclusive and sustainable development to agriculture, the key actors within the value chain in the sector must be coordinated; hence partnerships are integral to the process of sustainable and inclusive transformation”.
Cynthia Egboboh, Abuja.
