Improved Agriculture: Solidaridad Inaugurates Enugu State Multi- Stakeholders Platform

Posted by Ignatius Okpara Featured, Latest Headlines, News Across Nigeria, News From The State Thursday, July 1st, 2021

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Determined to ensure that oil palm Small holders in Enugu State, South- East Nigeria, are abreast with modern day best Management practices, Solidaridad West Africa (SWA), an international network Civil Society Organisation, has inaugurated a Multi-Stakeholder Platform (MSP) for Sustainable Climate Smart Oil Palm production among communities in Enugu state.

It would be recalled that the organization which operates in different sectors of the Economies in over 40 countries of the world, has been at the forefront of Championing improved Agricultural productivity in Nigeria, had recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the nation’s Federal Ministry Of Agriculture.

Speaking in Enugu yesterday during the official inauguration of the State Solidaridad Multi- Stake Holders Platform (MSP), the Senior Climate Specialist, Africa and Country Technical Lead, Nigeria, Dr. Samuel Ogallah, stated that the effort was part of the National Initiatives for Sustainable and Climate-Smart Oil Palm Smallholders (NISCOPS) in Nigeria.

He explained that the setting up of the (MSP) was as a result of the studies conducted in 2019 by Solidaridad in the oil-palm sector in oil-palm producing states of Nigeria, including Kogi, Enugu, Akwa-ibom and Cross Rivers states.

According to him, “We conducted climate vulnerability analysis studies that gave us a red alert on what we are likely to face between now and the next 30 years if things are not done differently.

The Climate Specialist, noted that aerial photos and images taken during the study had shown sustained degradation of the ecosystem.

Ogalla, stressed that “We compared the land use, vegetation and land cover as of 1949 and projected it to 2039.

“We now see that by 2039, most of what we have now will become rare as there would be no vegetation again (due to lack of proper planning of settlement areas among other degrading human activities,” he said.

Solidaridad, he added, also conducted analysis on Gender Inclusion and Gender Participation in the oil palm value chain and discovered a lot of biases against women and youths from the report.

“Access to land for women and youths is also an issue. Favourable land tenure system is also an issue. Who has the right to land, who owns the land? We have seen this play out in various communities.

“So, the essence of this MSP is to be able to meet with the people who are the custodians of the land and see how we can help with re-orientating and sensitizing them, build their capacities so that they can see and do things differently.

He also disclosed that the studies also revealed that farmers had limited knowledge of best management practices and were overwhelmed with issues of non-application of improved planting materials and inefficient palm-oil processing facilities.

Realising the enormity of the situation, he said the organisation decided to take a multi-Stakeholder approach involving people from different backgrounds with direct or indirect interest in oil-palm, to look at the issues, brainstorm and address them holistically.

“The idea is that at the end of the day, we should be able to produce oil-palm sustainably and talking about sustainability, we have three pillars – Economy (income), Social and Environment.

“We talk about producing oil palm to have income that would translate into improvement in livelihood for smallholder households in our local communities and when there is sustainable income, there will be less social problems.

“Environmentally, we have to produce Oil-palm or palm oil in a very sustainable atmosphere so that we can sustain our natural resources for our future generations,” Ogallah explained.

African Examiner recalls that the organization, had recently inaugurated the MSP in four local government areas of the state, which included, Aninri, Udenu, Nkanu West, and Isi- Uzo.

The State Stakeholders were drawn from Oil-palm farming localities traditional rulers, Agriculture related Ministries, Departments and Agencies as well as the Media and Civil Society groups.

Some of the small oil palm farmers who spoke at the event, testify to the fact that they have been enjoying improved production since the intervention of Solidaridad especially with the application of the best Management practices.