INNOVATION IN OIL PALM PLANTATION

Our priority is to see Nigeria as the agricultural center of Africa and we are committed to implement the following agenda before 2050

1. To ensure sustainable food production systems ; part of our commitment is to promote the development of the sustainable production and ultimate utilization of the oil palm in Nigeria and west Africa sub-region with a focus on practical field training based on best practices as the driving mechanism behind such sectorial  development.

2. The project maintains ecosystem, strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters, and that progressively improve land and soil quality . We need to understand that agriculture is the main consumer of freshwater withdrawals. Trees regulate water availability in many ways. On the scale trees  help soil absorb and store water, binding carbon in the ground, restoring soil facility.

To ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production.

Our main objectives is making Nigeria's oil palm plantations more productive than in current leading world palm oil producing countries. The purpose of this project is to contribute to the reduction of poverty in rural areas among small scale active farmers where oil palm is highly cultivated, creating a rural-urban employment and value chain addition to improve the economy of Nigeria and the sub-region. The major challenge is to harmonize the interest of multiple smallholders and at the same time, address both short-term and long-term environmental objectives.  A more balanced and solution-oriented perspective is require from both side. This initiative will let communities of small scale oil palm farmers exploit resources during their lifetime and hand over to the future generations that will see and regard themselves as custodian of nature given resources

Our solution method includes methods and mechanism for raising capacity for effective climate change, and conservative related planning management and functioning environmental governance of the oil palm industry. Our main objective is making Nigeria's oil palm plantation more productive than in the current leading world palm oil producing countries.
Are there good oil-palm hybrid seeds available in Nigeria?, The answer is YES!

Willow NGO as the answer to annual yield fluctuations in Nigeria oil-palm plantations. Among oil-palm growing countries, it is only in Nigeria that most plantation owners do not care about the quality of their planting materials. They assume that the cheap oil-palm seedlings they see in road side nurseries are as good for their plantations. They do not even observe that the so called TENERA seedlings they buy from their regular suppliers differentiate into a mixture of the 3 varieties of palms in their plantations.

In other countries, all planters fully understand that they must only use seeds produced from crosses of dura and pisifera palms (D X P). By adopting Willow, Nigeria farmers will be able to overcome the problematic fluctuation and low yields in their plantations.

Our solution is to impacts the lives of 150 smallholder farmers within south-west, south-south and south-east L.G.A in Nigeria. The key component of this project is to teach the 150 farmers on best agricultural practices for maximum yield from their plantations. This is important because land space available may be constant, but with good management practices, production will be enhanced without destroying the environment and destroying the chances for the unborn generations to meet their needs. Another important aspect of our innovation is group disintegration. The trained individual farmers shall be organized into groups and encouraged to manage their own operations as well. In the long term, different groups shall carryout needs assessment and start income generating projects. This is an incentive to hold together and champion other communal activities and needs. Income generating activities increases individual capital in line with poverty reduction strategy thereby connecting members to uphold the projects.

Our assumption

1.That the community leaders will allow the project team to engage with the smallholders farmers.

2.That the participants will come for the training

3.That participant are willing to train other community members

4.That the smallholders farmers who will be trained create time to time for evaluation assessment and every information will be detailed down for our appraisal and reference. No one will be left behind

5. At the end of this project, every smallholder farmers shall be considered as a successful oil palm producer and are ready to attain financial freedom

6. That we shall monitor and follow-up trained farmers to ensure compliance with the learnt oil palm production and processing techniques and practices

7.That the project will increase the motivation, and cultural community change toward the required sustainability.

8.That the project will include ways to achieve dissemination of essential knowledge, marketing, and raising awareness about sustainable lifestyle and development.

It is of great interest to know that West Africa used to be the centre of the palm oil industry. The export of palm kernels began in 1832 and by 1911 'British ' West African alone exported 157,000 tons of which about 75 percent came from Nigeria in the 1870s.

British administrators took the plant to Malaysia in 1934, and that country has surpassed Nigeria as the largest exporter  of the product. Africa continued to lead the world in production and export of palm oil throughout the first half of the 20th century.

The reason why we selected this stage of development for our solution is because of commercial interference. Considering the fact  that Nigeria, which is the largest consumer of palm oil in Africa and with the population of 193 million (World bank 2018) cannot satisfy the local need for palm oil, but with a short fall of whooping 0.32 million metric tons, any support given to the smallholders of oil palm plantations will boost local production and possibly encourage export.

It will amaze you that Nigeria has imported palm oil worth over $3.2 billion dollars in the last ten years. this means that the nation imported a cumulative 4,760,000 tons of palm oil from 2007 to November 2017. This has no doubt brought more hardships and poverty to the country.

The significant approach that makes our solution innovative is listed below in the following information which will be of interest to you.

The oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) in a location where it grows well is of high economic value to its owner. Its non-seasonal production habit, high yield potential and several by-products from its primary fresh fruit bunches (ffb) make an oil palm plantation a profitable business proposition.

There is however a snag in this glowing prospect for most Nigerian oil palm planters. They have a common production problem of high bunch yields between January and June followed by a sharp drop from then to December in a vicious annual cycle. For small plantations of 10 acres (4.0 ha) to 50 acres (20.0 ha), the problem can result in total absence of harvest-able bunches for 3-4 months of the year during which there is no income from their farms. In larger estates, the short fall in production during the lean period translate into heavy loss of revenue and worrisome plantation maintenance headache.

The good news is that the problem is self imposed by the plantation owners and it is preventable by having access to the right seedlings and understanding the ubiquitous oil palm. The oil palm we see in the country side have 3 different varieties with distinct fruit forms. They all look alike and cannot be differentiated by sight.

Our solution is to serve 150 smallholder farmers within south-west, south-south and south east L.G.A in Nigeria between now and next one year. And our solution is going to be serving about 750 smallholders farmers within the various L.G.A stated previously stated above. With this number of people our aim and target to promote the development of the sustainable production and ultimate utilization of the oil palm in Nigeria and west Africa sub-region will be highly successful. Also there will be increase in revenue of smallholders farmer and productivity will continuing to increase in the country. The numbers of smallholders farmers of the various L.G.A stated above who will have improved knowledge on oil palm plantation and processing techniques as a result of the practical field  training will also be increased. The project will also increase the motivation, and cultural community change towards require sustainable. It will also include ways to achieve dissemination of essential knowledge, marketing and raising awareness about sustainable life style and development.

We are going to use these various means to measure our success.

1. The general agricultural extension approach: Success is measured in terms of the rate of take-up of the recommendations and increase in national production.

2. The commodity specialized approach: The measure of success is usually the total production of the particular crop.

3. The training and visit approach: Success is measured in terms of production increase of the particular crops covered by the programme.

4. The agricultural extension participatory approach: Success is measured by the numbers of farmer's activity participating and benefiting, and the continuity of local extension organizations.

5. The farming systems development approach: Success is measured by the  the extent to which farming people adopt the technologies developed by the programme and continue using them over the time.

6. The cost sharing approach:  Success is measured in term of farm people's willingness and ability to share some of the cost either individually or through their local government units.

We have a total of 12 people in our team.

Full time staff - 5

part time staff - 2

contractors and other workers are 5. Which makes it a total number of twelve people.

Ohiobo Amos Edekio Yaihegbo is one of our researcher. He is an academic asst. cheif technologist in federal university Lafia, Nasarawa state, Nigeria. He posses the following qualification FISLT, AISLT, PFD, Msc, PGDE all in microbiology, biotechnology, laboratory technology and education.

Allissee pedigree hybrids ( APH ) was developed by Dr. Fredrick O. Aya, a Nigerian Agronomist who worked for the Nigerian institute of oil palm research ( NIFOR ) for 14 years and then moved to the federal ministry of agriculture, where he was in charge of all tree crops in Nigeria for ten years ( 1979-1989 ) under the monitoring and evaluation unit of the ministry pior to his retirement.

He was also the Bendel state oil palm company non-executive chairman, 1983 to 1987.

Dr Fredrick Aya graduated from the university of Ibadan (UI) in 1965 with a Bachelor's degree in Agriculture and proceeded to Michigan state university. USA where he completed his Masters in Horticulture in 1967. He later obtained his phD in oil palm Agronomy from the university of Ibadan while working at NIFOR in 1977.

He has extensive knowledge
and experience in Tree crop plantation management and has over the years
continued his personal research in oil palm which culminated in the
development of the Allissee pedigree hybrids (APH) that are capable of
redefining oil palm plantation agriculture in Nigeria.

The approach to building a diverse, equitable, and inclusive leadership team is to reach to and meet the needs of every category of people in the rural areas. To also ensure that all the rural areas in Nigeria have been entrepreneurially, and educationally empowered and poverty rate there reduced to three percent by 2028.

In the last over one year, the NGO has made life simple for many farmers in many local Governments in Kwara state through its training in modern and technological farming. Additionally, the NGO has signed a number of memorandum of understandings ( M O Us ) with both foreign and local industries that produce modern organic plus fertilizers, and various chemicals such as insecticides, fungicides e.t.c.

One of such overseas countries has cover one thousand products. The immediate and enduring effects these products produce has popularized the name of the NGO, to say the least. One of the results of the foregoing is that the NGO keep receiving calls, short message service ( sms ) and appeals from various states to come and train rural farmers to enlighten them in order to enhance and improve their lifestyle.

One of the major barriers Solve will help to tackle will be the provision of funds to enable my organization raise a hybrid oil palm seedlings for small scale holder farmers who hitherto will be willing through our consistent motivation, education and financing embark on massive planting in degraded sites nation wide as part of measures to restore forest cover in the country. This will check the alarming rate of forest depletion in our country. When Ghana was faced with this same challenges and barriers especially of forests depletion.  The government through Mr. Jinapor recently issued a statement of the governments concern of reversing the alarming rate of forests depletion in their country and has set aside June 11 this year for the planting of high yield oil palm seedlings to support the initiative. the exercise would see the President, the speaker of Parliament, the chief justice, and eminent dignitaries planting trees to support the initiative.  If Solve would be kind enough to select our organization as one of the beneficiary of their funding, we on our part will put machinery in place to get high-yield seedlings of oil palm. The government would through this support of Solve awake from their slumber and lackadaisical attitude towards the revival, restoration and sustainability of oil palm plantation in Nigeria in particular and in Africa in General.

In every worthwhile project where sustainability  is considered necessary, Human capital is indispensable. My organization needed great support in sourcing for experienced talent among the existing small scale holder farmers and also raise young talented youths who can be trained and developed in this field for the purpose of continuity.

My organization has done a bit of the aforementioned by employing experienced hands to form the board members who will be involved in training other farmers from time to time to join the workforce.

My organization will need consistent financial support from solve and other interested donors who has a concern for the restoration of depletion of our forests consequently resulting to the global climate degradation of our  climate change.

Our organization will need the unrelenting support of our government agencies to foster speedy rehabilitation and restoration of our depleted forest and the worsening climatic change. For instance in Ghana, the Eastern Regional Minister Mr. Seth Acheampong commended the chief executive officer of Richie Plantation Limited Mr. Ekow Quansah for taking hold initiative to establish the hybrid oil palm plantation as well as the traditional chiefs for releasing lands for this project.

Our government in Nigeria needed to emulate this good gesture of the Ghanaian Minister in company with other stake holders to foster successful implementation of high yield oil palm plantation in Nigeria and the sub-regions.

My organization will equally canvass for support in getting modern machinery to substitute the former crude and outdated implements used in the past.

My organization will want to partner with both indigenous and non indigenous organization so as to enable long term sustainability. The indigenous organization i am looking forward to partner with is called African youth commission (AYC) who is presently in affiliation with African Union Diaspora Youth Initiative.  I am privileged to be my country coordinator for AYC.

I will want to partner with them in areas of training the youth of both existing small scale holders farmers of oil palm plantation and non existing but interested new small scale holder farmers whom i believe will be joining the project soon afterward. My organization will equally canvass for the partnership of solve in all areas of our proposed funding, raising of high yield seedlings, provision of digital or modern machinery that will increase production and sustainability of this project for long term. I sincerely believe the partnership of Solve will prompt our government agency to wake up to their primary responsibility of enhancing the restoration of high yield oil palm plantation to foster the employment of youths who are yearly rolled out of school without any hope or visible employment either in the public or private sector. The partnership scheme will help to advance our solution by providing funds and raising high yield seedlings to improve production. India is a good example of such advance participation when they gather support of their country stakeholders and government agencies to tackle the problem of perennial inter cropping in their depleted regions.