The Executive Director of the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN), Dr. Patrick Adebola has highlighted the achievements of the institution under his leadership in the year 2023.

Adebola disclosed this during a one-on-one interview with CEOAFRICA at his office.

According to him, his administration continued with the infrastructural development of the institute, continued efforts to revive the country of research, and expanded the research horizon to cover areas that had not been covered before.

The Director noted that in the year 2023, the institute improved on the existing successes and achievements of the past administration and ensured on delivering their major plans which is to see that Nigerian farmers cultivate cocoa crops, and others.

On infrastructural development, Patrick who explained that there were lots of infrastructural deficits ranging from offices to laboratories and even service departments before his appointment, disclosed that he focused on the infrastructural deficits in 2023.

He said, “We started with the face-lift of the General block, which includes the Admin, the Directorate as well as the other scientific departments, pathology, agronomy, and NGOs which are all in a solid state now and wearing a new look.”

“Most of the laboratories have also been renovated. These are there for everybody to see, so we continued in our infrastructural development in 2023 and we expanded it to the NGO’s research laboratory which we just renovated, and you are free to go and have a look at it,” he said.

Dr. Adebola expressed that, “We also continued with this infrastructural development by putting in some boreholes because of the water requirements we have in the institute. There were new boreholes that were built in 2023. We also renovated some of the Nursery facilities, because this is where we nurse our plants into planting materials before we distribute to farmers. A new borehole was also sunk there to provide water for watering planting materials before being given to farmers.”

“Also, in terms of the internet, when we came into the office 2020, the institute was on the 4Mpph megabytes which is very slow and virtually nonfunctioning. In 2021- 2022, we increased it to 100Mpps which we are now using. That 100mpps is functional and makes all researchers to sit down in their offices to access the internet. Now the phase one of the project was completed in 2022. In 2023, we implemented the phase 2 which extended the internet facility to other buildings to make sure that at least all the research departments have service fast and reliable internet.”

According to him, “We also continued in line with agrochemical screenings. We have a very solid relationship with some of these agrochemical companies in Nigeria and we have the mandate to look at what they are selling to our farmers and make sure that those agrochemicals are as effective as they claim and, to make sure that they don't have persistent residue which can make, especially cocoa be rejected in our traditional markets.”

The CRIN boss furthered that a lot of agrochemicals were screened in 2023, and from “the approval of the Federal Ministry of Agricultural and Food Security, we gave nodes to several of these materials to be utilized and to be made available to farmers to use in the farms”.

On research, the CRIN Executive Director stated that some proposals were investigated for implementation and the results are being compiled. In his words, “Last year, we had an in-house review where we were able to look at all the proposals that were put up by our scientists, and after rigorous discussions, a few of those proposals were approved for implementation. Those proposals have been implemented and the research results are being compiled.”

“In 2023 also, we started participating with what the Cocoa of Excellency International. The Cocoa of Excellency International is an organization that is responsible for looking at the framework of the different qualities of the cocoa produced all over the world. Every year, we run what we call the Cocoa of Excellence competition where samples of cocoa materials are being collected all over the world and are run through in the laboratory room. The best fifty will be selected and given awards in Amsterdam,” the Director said.

The CRIN Director further explained the event of the award, saying “That happened last year in Rome. Several samples were collected in Nigeria from our various farmers through their various organizations, those samples were processed in these our labs into cocoa liquor which we now sent to Rome for analysis. Last year, we were informed that out of the seven samples that we sent to the Cocoa of Excellence International in Rome, two of those samples were selected amongst the best fifty in the world and the award was given to us in Amsterdam early this month. I was there physically in Amsterdam to receive this reward on behalf of our very good farmers and organizations. So, that's one of the biggest achievements that we had in 2023.”