25/04/2024
Cash crops grown in the state include coconut, oil palm and raffia palm, pear etc. The potentialities for the development of these crops to feed local and international industries are very good. Technology should be developed to reclaim land from mangrove swamps in order to cultivate food, especially lowland rice and the cash crops identified above on a large, commercial scale.
Various species of tropical trees grow in both the mangrove and fresh water swamps. Rubber is an important cash crop in the drier northern part of the state. Several timber species provide material for canoe building which is an important industry since canoes are the only means of transportation in much of the state. There is need to exploit the state’s forest products for paper and pulp, timber, canoe and boat building, tooth picks etc., but exploitation is problematic because of poor access roads.
The potentialities for industrial take-off of Bayelsa State are very bright, despite the present problem of transportation and communications, unreliable power supply, water, and other basic infrastructure. Agricultural products on which small to medium scale industries could be established include palm oil, coconut, rubber; while the fishing industry a could concentrate on fish oil extraction, fish packaging/canning et cetera. Other farm products on which industries can be based are local gin distillery from raffia palm and palm wine tapping. However, the major areas for investments in agro-allied industrial development are as follows:
a) Vegetable Oil extraction from coconut and palm kernels: This is an industrial investment area that has not been exploited in the state. Opportunities abound for production of fatty oil used in paint and soap manufacture; production of gin from raffia palm and palm wine is economically viable.
(b) Rubber: Production of such items as belts, inner tubes, tyres, pipes, mats and shoe heels and soles is economically feasible;
(c) ‘Ogbono’: Production of Ogbono on a commercial scale is viable, but this area of trade has not been exploited.
(d) Timber: This can be exploited for the production of toilet rolls, corrugated boards for packaging, tooth picks, ice cream sticks and straw matting for packing.
[ excerpts from Niger Delta Budget monitoring group
N:B
dis matter no be today, we are just privileged to be the ones echoing it again this time around.
If only all stakeholders will give a dogged approach to this long standing and well articulated report for an agroforestry revolution, that will not only increase revenue for the state, but also reduce unemployment of our teeming youths and a good source of income for our rural dwellers
egbeeeri faaa oh
for fast maturing hybrid coconut seedlings
call EBI 07087874482