After a successful inception stage of its palm oil intervention programme known as National Initiatives for Sustainable and Climate Smart Oil Palm Smallholders (NISCOPS) in West Africa, Solidaridad, an international development organisation, is set to commence full implementation of the government of Netherland’s funded programme in Nigeria.
To achieve this, the group has held a two-day national stakeholders’ forum for NISCOPS in Abuja, where participants developed indicators for the work plan that would guide the implementation stage of programme between 2020 and 2023.
Among stakeholders at the forum were Ministries of Agriculture, Environment, Commerce and Industry, and Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) from the four states of Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Enugu, and Akwa -Ibom, where NISCOPS was being implemented.
Also present were CSOs, research institutes and investors in the oil palm sector, during which the stakeholders brain stormed to develop the work plan indicators for implementation of NISCOPS.
Dr. Samson Samuel Ogallah, Solidaridad’s Senior Climate Specialist – Africa, who spoke at the event, said that NISCOPS would enable governments to support and work with farmers towards a more sustainable, climate-smart oil palm production and build capacity of smallholders, organisations and local institutions to improve performance.
He said it would also support the development of mechanisms to operate in landscapes prone to deforestation and peat degradation, and contribute to the objectives of national determined contributions (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
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According to him, climate-smart agriculture would improve yield and income of smallholder farmers with less harm to the environment.
According to Kenechukwu Onukwube, Programme Manager, Oil Palm, Solidaridad in Nigeria, the global oil palm market which currently worth over $62 billion annually underscored the commodity’s economic significance and multiple utility.
He stressed that the multiple utility and economic significance of palm oil, both in the home and industries, explained the growth in its global market size, noting that palm oil production had the capacity to lift millions of rural poor out of poverty and contribute to attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Onokwube maintained that Nigeria is currently the biggest loser in palm oil business, stressing, “The country is unable to provide adequate quantity required domestically, she loses foreign exchange as a result of importation of oil and loses potential revenue that would have been earned if vast area of land was to be utilised in sustainable ways,” he said.
He, however, emphasised the need to empowering smallholder farmers, saying they remained players in the oil palm sector.
He said: “Empowering smallholder farmers would translate to pro-poor strategy that would lift millions of Nigerians out of poverty in line with Federal Government’s plan to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty.”
In its implementation stage, NISCOPS would build capacity of farmers to implement best management practices, intensify and rehabilitate efforts and ensure sustainable climate-smart practices for increased productivity of palm oil.
The programme would also introduce innovation for improved downstream processing to increase palm oil extraction rate and quality, create competitive oil palm sector through policy and institutional dialogue and influencing, improve access to finance, inputs and market for oil palm smallholder farmers and SMEs.
