As ongoing plans to hold a world-class Cash Crop Stakeholders’ Summit are taking shape, the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN), Ibadan, Oyo State, is set to host the Governors of the states producing their mandate crops. CRIN today has a mandate to conduct research on five crops, namely, Cocoa, Kola, Coffee, Cashew, and Tea throughout the country.

Many states in Nigeria are cash crops producing states. While Edo, Oyo, Osun, Ondo, Ogun, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Ekiti, and Delta are primary cocoa-producing regions; Cashew-producing states in Nigeria are, Kaduna, Abia, Kogi, Enugu, Kwara, Oyo, Niger, Imo, and Abuja FCT. Kola is widely grown in the Southwest, such as Ogun, Kwara, Osun, and Oyo State. Also, coffee-producing states in Nigeria include Bauchi, Kwara, Plateau, Taraba, Cross River, and Osun; and notable tea-producing regions in Nigeria, are Plateau, Taraba, and Cross River States.

Meanwhile, to cover the whole country effectively, the institute has established substations in six locations in which the mandate crops of the institute can be economically cultivated. They are: Owena, Ondo State (caters for cocoa, robusta coffee and kola in the south west zone rain forest belt); Uhonmora, Edo State (caters for cocoa and coffee in marginal forest areas); Ochaja, Kogi State (caters for cashew and kola); Ibeku, Abia State (caters for cocoa and cashew in the south east zone and also in rain forest belt); Ajassor, Cross River State (caters for cocoa and kola in the south-east zone rain forest belt); and Kusuku-Mambilla, Taraba State (caters for Arabica coffee and tea).

The Cash crops producing states and stakeholders summit scheduled for December 2024, will hold alongside the institute’s 60th Anniversary and the 2024 Research Institutes Games Association of Nigeria (RIGAN) Festival at the insitute.

In a letter sent to the state governors, exclusively obtained by CEOAFRICA, the Director of CRIN, Dr. Patrick Adebola said “CRIN is using these major events to bring all the governors of Cashew, Cocoa, Coffee, Kola and Tea producing states and investors to chart the way forward for our dear country to maximise this cash crops to earn foreign revenue for the nation.”

Also noted in the letter, the governors are requested to give an overview of the potentials of the cash crops in their states and efforts for investment opportunities, for a world-class documentary aimed at showcasing the producing states of the cash crops. CEOAFRICA, the pride of African media and the media partner of the institute, has been commissioned for the top-notch documentary.

Established in Ibadan, Oyo State on 1st December, 1964 as a successor autonomous research organisation to the Nigerian Substation of the defunct West African Cocoa Research Institute (WACRI), CRIN has over the years, applied science and technology in increasing productivity, improving quality and value addition of Cashew, Cocoa, Coffee, Kola and Tea.