Daily Post Nigeria
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The Special Adviser to Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State on Cocoa Development and Control, Ntufam Oscar Ofuka, has accused a retired Assistant Inspector General of Police, Mbu Joseph Mbu, of attempting to assassinate him.
Addressing a press conference in Calabar, the state capital, Ofuka said: “I am compelled to address you today over the plot to assassinate me by a one-time Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Mbu Joseph Mbu (rtd).
“AIG Mbu is so irked over my appointment as Special Adviser on Cocoa Development and Control and wants to take over my job through fraudulent acts, and affront.
Experts team lead by Prof Laxman Kukanoor, demonstrated on making juice and jam by cashew apple in a recently held awareness programme.
HUBBALLI: Having found the climactic conditions in Dharwad district to be conducive to the cultivation of cashew, the Directorate of Cashewnut and Cocoa Development (DCCD), a central agency, is collaborating with the Regional Horticultural Research and Extension Centre (RHREC) in Kumbhapur to encourage more farmers to undertake cultivation of cashew across the district.
Deputy director of DCCD, Kochi Dadasaheb Desayi pointed to Dharwad’s proximity to Uttara Kannada, which is part of the traditional cashew belt in the region, as being one of the reasons for encouraging cultivation of the commercial crop in the district.
Cocoa Farmers to Benefit from improved Seedlings in Liberia frontpageafricaonline.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from frontpageafricaonline.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Partial view of hybrid cocoa seedlings
More than 1,500 smallholder farmers in southeast Liberia are to benefit from improved cocoa seedlings, says Solidaridad Liberia. The distribution, according to the organization, is part of efforts to boost the efficient production of the commodity and improve farmers’ livelihoods. Each farmer will receive a minimum of 400 seedlings.
“Under the Cocoa Value Chain Development Programme (COVADEP), Solidaridad in collaboration with private cocoa growers will supply 600,000 hybrid cocoa seedlings to farmers in Grand Gedeh and River Gee counties at a small fee,” Solidaridad Liberia said in a press release.
The Cocoa Value Chain Development Programme (COVADEP), which is a four-year program, was launched in 2020 and is co-funded by the European Union and Solidaridad.
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Apart from neglect of agricultural infrastructure by the government, non-availability of improved high-yielding cocoa seedlings, scarcity of other inputs such as agro-chemicals, old production technologies and climate change have been identified as impediments to increasing cocoa productivity in the country. Production of cocoa beans was around 300,000 metric tonnes in 2013/2014, but reduced to about 245,000 metric tonnes in the 2019/2020 session.
However, in the 2019/2020 cocoa season, the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) aggregated 742,725 tonnes as of June 4, according to International Cocoa Organisation (ICCO). And, Côte d’Ivoire, as of August 3, 2020, aggregated 2.043 million tonnes.