Palm Biofuel, Agro-Based Pharmaceuticals, Others Can Replace Petroleum, Says Ikuenobe

(The Guardian) ... Oil palm can fetch Nigeria as much revenue as the crude oil can so said the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emefiele. But self-inflicted challenges that de-ranked the country from the largest producer in the pre-independence era to the fifth producer are getting compounded by insecurity and land tenure system, among others.

The Executive Director of the Nigeria Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR), Benin City, Dr Celestine Ikuenobe, in this exclusive interview with Head, Agro-Economy, FEMI IBIROGBA, X-rays some of the challenges, how the industry could be developed for maximum national benefits and how youths could play significant roles for agro-economic diversification. Excerpts:

With shifts from whole petroleum energy products such as petrol and diesel, the country can also benefit from the production of industrial and fuel-grade alcohol from cassava and sugarcane and biodiesel from palm oil. Aggregating these value chains as spinoffs from primary agricultural production, the country may earn such revenues to match its current revenues from petroleum.

Insecurity caused by herdsmen is a serious one that needs to be tackled. It threatens even the basic issues of food security, as many farmers, including women, now fear to farm beyond their homes and cannot go out far afield as their regular farmlands because of fear of attack by herdsmen. This has also largely affected persons engaged in cash crop agriculture such as cocoa, oil palm, cashew and rubber. It is imperative that insecurity issues be tackled as we intend to revive and increase the production of cash crops and even our regular food crops.

First, let us understand that the palm oil market and demand is segmented between industrial use quality and domestic cooking palm oil quality. The bulk of palm oil produced by smallholders is suitable for local cuisine. This oil often has high free fatty acid (FFA content) often greater than five per cent, which disqualifies it for industrial use. Palm oil desired for industrial refining should have FFA content of less than five per cent, with low dirt content less than 0.1% and low moisture levels also less than 0.1%. These qualities are difficult to achieve among smallholders largely because of the processing technologies adopted. If all the fruit bunches processed by smallholders were done by the large industrial mills, we could have better results.

Coming to the question of the area needed to be planted to meet national demand, especially for refining purposes, assuming an average of three metric tonnes of palm oil yield per hectare, the country will need an additional 580,000 hectares of mature plantings today. However, this may not be readily achieved in one year. There is currently a huge wastage in palm oil processing in the sense that most of the small-scale producers achieve far less the potential of palm oil extraction rates.

Our much-touted words that Nigeria used to be the number one producer in the world is correct. We must, however, realise that much of that production at that time came from the wild and natural groves which abound in the country. Today, much of global palm oil comes from cultivated plantations, often in such huge industrial scales requiring large expanse of land. By the sheer fact of the land tenure system in most of the oil palm belt of Nigeria, a large expanse of land is not easily available.

Where available, contentions around ownership can discourage any willing investor with capital. Let us also not forget that oil palm cultivation requires huge initial investment costs. Where people find alternative investment opportunities, they would not want to go into such investments as the oil palm. Oil palm requires what some people term patient capital because returns to investments take time to achieve with breakeven points sometimes as high as five to seven years, from the initial investment.

We hope that now that the awareness is catching on; that the country can achieve significant milestones in developing the sector. Much of that will require strong political and economic will and rely on re-planting moribund old plantations and new plantings in the existing natural groves.

Most of the small-scale producers still rely on planting unselected improved materials for various reasons, ranging from low awareness to the proliferation of poor seeds and seedlings by unscrupulous producers who unfortunately defraud these farmers. The Nigeria Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR) has, over the years, developed improved varieties which yield high.

Yes. The entire industry depends on energetic youths, from planting, processing and to marketing. Since it is a life-long investment, it is encouraged that youths start to engage in investments in the business early on in their life and can expect to make good profit after five to seven years of planting. The palms themselves are life-long assets. Also, specialist services, such as organised harvesting, are highly demanded in the industry. Such services can be rendered by enterprising youths. Other services in the value chain include input supply, toll milling and palm kernel cracking and marketing. READ MORE