The Executive Director of Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN), Dr. Partrick Adebola has disclosed that the target set for the year 2021 by the research institute was fully accomplished.

Dr. Patrick Adebola who was appointed in October, 2020 has used his leadership prowess to advance the mandate and revitalized the institute to its excellent standard as what it is known for in the African continent.

In an exclusive interview with CEOAFRICA, Dr Patrick Adebola stated that the year 2021 was a good year for the management and staff of CRIN for receiving 100 percent capital funding from the Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development which was the main reason CRIN achieved 100 percent of all the projects and target set for the year 2021.

The Agricultural expert further said that CRIN achieved its primary mandate of making provision for farmers in terms of giving them improved planting materials to establish new plantations or rehabilating their old farms.

We trained over 500 farmers in 2021 in collaboration with FMARD. We also distributed over 500,000 improved Cocoa seedlings to farmers across the Cocoa producing states in Nigeria. Our core mandate is research, Adebola said and we are working on releasing more improved varieties of our mandate crops very soon.

“CRIN scientists have also been able to visit several plantations in the country, providing expertise required and giving necessary advice and guidance to famers.

We advise the farmers, in terms of the qualities of their soils, fertility and how to ameliorate the declining fertility.

We also upgraded the Cocoa flavour laboratory to international standard which is currently functioning at full capacity.

In 2021, my scientists have been able to process cocoa beans samples to determine their flavor quality. The cocoa flavor laboratory we established has been accredited and known to be one of the best Cocoa Flavor Laboratories in Africa.

The lab is functioning at full capacity and our entire Cocoa stakeholders, especially the exporters, the producers and their processors can now bring samples of their cocoa beans into our cocoa flavor laboratory, run it through our laboratory and we will be able to tell you the flavor of the cocoa samples that they sent to us. ‘’

Dr Adebola further said that the Lab became necessary because the people the Cocoa beans are being exported to, cherish cocoa with good flavor and this Cocoa flavor lab will soon be able to certify the Cocoa beans sent to CRIN before it will get to the international market.

Apart from the Cocoa Flavour Laboratory, we have what we call the fermentary building which I found very dilapidated when I came into office in 2020, the Management Team under my leadership resolved to fix the dilapidated structure.

Since this institute was established in 1964, there was no fence and we had problems of pilfering of our research materials, apart from encroachment of our land by neighboring communities.

Today we have put in place a very beautiful perimeter fencing at the headquarters of Cocoa research institute of Nigeria Under my leadership, apart from research being our core mandate, we were able to work on giving a face lift to many of our infrastructure.

The building here and the whole Directorate office were renovated in 2021".

The CRIN boss thanked the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Management Team and staff of CRIN for their dedication towards restoring the glory of the institute as a leading Cocoa Research Institute in Africa.