Prior to the discovery of crude oil in commercial quantities in Nigeria, palm oil was a major agricultural export crop and a top foreign exchange earner for the country in the 1950s and 1960s. Nigeria was the largest producer of palm oil in the world but has fallen to the fifth position with an average production of 1.4 million metric tonnes.
So my suspicion is maybe due to the fact that there is a change in the environment and you can put your finger on that. Second is the fact that there is more or less an increase in deforestation. I can give you an example of that. Over the last three years, we have had a colony of bats which have taken over part of the plantation. Prior to the deforestation of the western part of Okomu National Park, we never had that problem.
But the long-term strategy is that we are breeding for climate resilience. An example is that we alongside our partners are looking at drought-tolerant varieties of oil palm which are slow-growing and which will be able to withstand the long dry weather that we are now encountering. We are also looking at developing best management practices. If we were taking some things for granted we will not be able to, we have to do it better now.
A lot of the farmers are using huge amounts of chemicals in their activities because they don’t get labour and it is more cost-effective for them. But it has a downside which unfortunately they are not aware of, in terms of their health and their impacts on the environment.Ghansah: The second effect is that most of these chemicals are not safe when it affects human beings, so you have to be careful. Our farmers don’t have any idea about this. But this lady was wearing a skirt. She will just go to the river to collect water to mix with her chemicals. One other thing that makes her practice not sustainable also is the fact that the water she was using was muddy. It contains clay particles which will inactivate the chemicals, so she needs more chemicals to get the results.
Close your mouth ! Must you talk