COCOA FARM

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Cocoa flourishes in areas that are not more than 20 degrees north or south of the equator.^[7] The trees respond well in regions with high temperature and distributed rainfall. In Nigeria, the cocoa tree is grown from seedlings which are raised in nurseries, when the seedlings reach a height of 3 cm they are transplanted at a distance of 3 to 4 meters. The cultivation of cocoa is done by many smallscale farmers on farmlands of around 2 hectares while export is dominated by a few firms.^[8]

Historically Nigeria's cocoa production was marketed through a monopsony by marketing boards created by the government. In the 1980s the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund advised Nigeria to liberalize the sector because the marketing boards were ineffective. In 1986, Nigeria dissolved the marketing boards and liberalized cocoa marketing and trade. However, trade has not yielded the anticipated results, in addition, aging trees and farms, low yields, inconsistent production patterns, disease incidence,npest attack and little agricultural mechanization has contributed to a stagnant cocoa industry. Currently, farmers sell their products indirectly through a cooperative or a licensed buying agent who in turn sell it to exporting firms.

Cocoa production is important to the economy of Nigeria. Cocoa is the leading agricultural export of the country and Nigeria is currently the world's fourth largest producer of Cocoa, after Ivory Coast, Indonesia and Ghana,^[1] and the third largest exporter, after Ivory Coast and Ghana.^[2] The crop was a major foreign exchange earner for Nigeria in the 1950s and 1960s and in 1970 the country was the second largest producer in the world but following investments in the oil sector in the 1970s and 1980s, Nigeria's share of world output declined. In 2010, Cocoa production accounted for only 0.3% of agricultural GDP.^[1] Average cocoa beans production in Nigeria between 2000 and 2010 was 389,272 tonnes per year ^[1] rising from 170,000 tonnes produced in 1999.^[3]