FAO, GEF to support Cross River LGAs for cocoa, oil palm production
By George George Idowu
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has announced that eight local government areas in Cross River State will benefit from a sustainable cocoa and oil palm production project to be funded by Global Environmental Facilities (GEF).
According to FAO, the initiative will run for five years and the listed benefiting local government areas Akpabuyo, Odukpani, Akamkpa, Biase, Ogoja, Boki, Ikom, and Etung.
Chief Technical Adviser for the FAO-GEF initiative, Adebayo Shittu, revealed this during a training program for enumerators focused on using baseline tools for agroecology performance evaluation in Calabar on Wednesday.
He said Cross River and Ondo states are the primary beneficiaries project adding that the initiative aims to promote integrated landscape management and a sustainable food system in the Niger Delta region.
Shittu explained that the second, third, and fourth components of the project, sustainable food systems, restoration of degraded landscapes, and monitoring and evaluation will benefit all eight local government areas.
According to him, the first component, which focuses on developing integrated landscape management, specifically targets Akamkpa and Boki local government areas. These areas are the core cocoa and oil palm-producing regions in the state and possess extensive forest reserves.
“Our approach involves understanding the current situation of the farmers and identifying their key challenges to make evidence-based decisions,” Shittu said.
He further disclosed that the project will employ a mobile phone-based survey, known as “Kobo Collect,” which does not require internet access except during data uploads.
The initiative aims to support smallholder farmers by helping them secure land titles, access credit, and establish community and private sector-led nurseries and extension services.
The survey will be household-based, with qualitative data gathered by enumerators who are residents of the local communities.