Challenges and Prospects of Smallholder Oil Palm Production in Awka Agricultural Zone of Anambra State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined the challenges and prospects of smallholder oil palm production in Awka Agricultural Zone of Anambra State. Seventy two smallholder oil palm farmers were interviewed for the purpose of eliciting information. Smallholder oil palm farmers in Awka Agricultural Zone were educated (79.2% -Senior Secondary School Certificate and above) and fairly economically stable with 41.7% and 18.1% earning more than ₦40,000.00 and between ₦30,001.00-₦40,000.00 per month respectively from the oil palm enterprise. Oil palm production practices were characterized with the use of unimproved varieties/natural regeneration (M=0.97); use of baskets for seed germination (M=0.69) and manual harvesting (M=0.88). The challenges of smallholder oil palm production included: high cost of land (M=2.79; SD=0.63); lack of access to credit (M=2.75; SD=0.62); lack of improved planting materials-seeds/seedlings (M=2.51; SD=0.73); lack of storage facilities (M=2.50; SD=0.77) and lack of processing facilities (M=2.44; SD=0.84). In spite of these challenges, the perceived prospects of oil palm production in the zone were enormous, namely; as source of revenue for government and the citizens (M=2.99; SD=0.59); could raise the standard of living of smallholder farmers (M=2.97; SD=0.58); increase in oil palm output/yield (M=2.93; SD=0.83); increase in farmers' income (M=89; SD=0.80) and improvement in food security (M=2.88; SD=0.60). The study recommended among other things the provision of access to credit and loan facilities, improved varieties of planting materials, modern harvesting, processing and storage facilities.

The oil palm (<i>Elaeis guineensis</i> Jacq): nature’s ecological endowment to eastern Nigeria

“…There are enormous perceived prospects of increased oil palm production in southeastern Nigeria. Strong and efficient palm oil sector in the region will ensure sustainable means of livelihood for its residents thereby enabling the poor to take active part in the fight against poverty (Enwelu et al, 2013;Eze et al, 2014;Bello et al, 2015). Interestingly, young people in their middle and productive age are interested and actively involved in the oil palm industry in parts of the region (Enwelu et al, 2013;Bello et al 2015;Nwankwo, 2016).…”

“…Some of them include (i) difficulty in acquiring large tracts of land owing to land tenure system, huge capital outlay required, lack of incentives and neglect of the rural areas, and inconsistent government policies; (ii) environmental factors -inadequate sunshine and solar radiation, low soil fertility status of the dominant Ultisols vis-à-vis high cost of fertilizers, and unfavourable distribution of rainfall and associated soil moisture stress; (iii) technical aspects including the long gestation period, low and unstable yields, problems with harvesting very tall and over-aged palm trees, the generally low level of management (of weeds, soil fertility, etc. ), and poor processing/storage conditions; and (iv) high labour input and cost (Omoti, 2003;Enwelu et al, 2013).…”

“…Generally the harvesting, processing and storage problems listed under the technical aspects are due to poor infrastructure (Izah and Ohimain, 2016). In the South East of Nigeria, manual harvesting is still predominant (Enwelu et al, 2013); so too is the use of primitive processing equipment instead of modern hand-press machines (Bello et al, 2015), not to talk of automated oil mill (Nwankwo, 2016). Oil palm production and processing in the region is, therefore, tedious, labour-intensive, and product-wasteful.…”

“…This is to say that among the constraints enumerated, 'high labour input and cost' has a special place in the zone. To buttress this point, of the three sources of labour input available to the oil palm industry in the zone viz hired labour, family labour and joint efforts of social groups/friends, hired labour is the major source (Enwelu et al, 2013;Bello et al, 2015), contributing over 80% of the total labour requirement (Nwankwo, 2016). This situation implies increased cost of production amidst financial constraint.…”

“…Most formal credit sources are inaccessible to the mostly small-scale oil palm producers (Bello et al, 2015;Izah and Ohimain, 2016). In southeastern Nigeria, the available informal credit sources provide funds at exorbitant interest rates (Enwelu et al, 2013;Nwankwo, 2016). Most oil palm farmers here thus fund their production from personal savings, using those in Udi, Enugu State of Nigeria as a case study (Bello et al, 2015).…”