The Executive Director of the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN), Dr. Patrick Adebola has on behalf of the management congratulated Christians in Nigeria and across the globe on the celebration of Easter, urging Nigerians not to relent on the efforts of ensuring peace and security in the country.

He also noted the need to not only put the country in prayers, but also do away with anything that will hinder the progress of the country.

Dr. Adebola made these assertions in his Easter greetings to Christians, where he emphasized the need for more farmers in the cocoa agricultural industry, to boost the economic viability of Nigeria.

According to him, there is readiness to accept interested farmers who are ready to join, as the institute will provide necessary support for them, adding that all necessary plans have been put in place for more farmers that are willing and ready to go into cocoa farming.

Speaking to CEOAFRICA, the CRIN boss seized the opportunity of the Easter celebration to announce that, “the prices of cocoa now is roughly about between $5800 -$6300 per ton for 2024 as compared to about $2300 that we had late in 2023, so the interest in people coming back to the farm establishing more plantation is there.”

“We have seen the number of re-occurrences before, some people have already come to the institute either for the establishment of new plantation or for the rehabilitation of some of the plantation that are more in board, those re-occurrences are already coming. We have about one hundred research scientists that are ready young minds and are ready to work. We have already mobilized them. We have already organized ourselves and we are going to deploy our human resources to be able to tackle this demand,” he expressed.

He also said “We are ready, our nursery has been well equipped. We have sunk a borehole and put all the necessary things in place to make sure that we meet the demand of our farmers. We are not using old materials, we are going to use all our new materials that are high yielding, that are early bearing and that will give expected yield to the farmers.”