How to revive Nigeria’s oil palm industry, by NIFOR
Wednesday, 14 July 2010 00:00 From Alemma-Ozioruva Aliu, Benin City Business Services – Business News

PROMOTION of private sector participation in oil palm plantation holds the ace in effective revival of the produce business in the country, officials of Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR) have said.
The institute however linked the neglect of the agricultural sector, due to the discovery of crude oil in Nigeria, to the decline in the production of palm oil in the country.
Nigeria was ranked the highest producer of palm products in the sixties, which prompted Asian countries to learn the cultivation of palm trees in the country.
Director of NIFOR, Dr Dere Okiy, yesterday in Benin, warned that until the private sector of the economy engages in the mass production of palm oil, Nigeria would continue to remain a net importer of the produce.
He stated this at a press conference to herald the commencement of activities to mark 71 years of existence of the institute.
Nigeria has remained a net importer of palm oil despite the existence of NIFOR, founded in 1939 by the colonial masters, to carry out research on palm oil.
Okiy attributed the shortage of edible oil in the country to the non-mass production of the product, insisting that the institute was only engaged in research and the results passed on to commercial private producers.
He therefore called on private investors to avail themselves with research findings of the institute and engage in mass production of palm oil.
“The emphasis of the institute is on research and not on production. Private individuals are supposed to be the driving force for mass production of palm oil.
“NIFOR is not expected to be producer of palm oil although we use our technology to produce a limited quantity for demonstration purpose.
“In places like Malaysia and Indonesia, it is the private organisations that produce palm oil, not government research organisations. The equivalent of NIFOR in Malaysia is called MPOB; it does not export palm oil but has provided the technologies and private companies have established trans-stations and needed activities in such a way that they mass produce palm oil.”
While observing that land tenure system in the country was a limiting factor against private mass production of palm oil by individuals, he called on local and state governments to provide land areas to oil palm farmers to encourage mass production of palm oil.
He explained that following the United Nations ban on the use of edible palm oil for the production of biodiesel fuel, the institute devised a means of mopping up used oil for the production of the fuel.
Chairman of NIFOR, Professor Chijioke Nwosu, also blamed the failure of the country to produce palm oil in commercial quantity on the neglect of agriculture by government at various levels, following the discovery of crude oil in Nigeria.