Coffee farming in disarray in Plateau

What is your reaction to the allegation that the government is not supporting coffee farming in the state?In 2007 when Governor Jonah Jang launched coffee farming, the government released fund to support farmers and every year the ministry distributes coffee seeds free of charge to farmers. Under the coffee scheme, the ministry has been training […]

What is your reaction to the allegation that the government is not supporting coffee farming in the state?
In 2007 when Governor Jonah Jang launched coffee farming, the government released fund to support farmers and every year the ministry distributes coffee seeds free of charge to farmers. Under the coffee scheme, the ministry has been training extension staff and coffee farmers in order to boost the production of coffee in the state.
What is the production capacity of coffee farmers in the state?
After a survey in 2007 by the ministry, we discovered that farmers had spent over N300 million and over 300 hectares were used to produce coffee by the farmers in the state. With the help of the ministry, farmers in the state now know the technology of production. Farmers know how to harvest it, because coffee is a very complex crop. When you talk of keeping coffee and to also maintain its flavor, a lot of technicalities are involved. If you don’t have good techniques on how to maintain it you may spoil it during harvest. We have taught our farmers what we call post-harvest handling and production. Farmers have the skills but unfortunately we don’t have the market and we don’t have processors.
What is the government doing about that?
Government cannot be the one to process it. If we have private individuals that will come, they just key in and we will introduce them to the farmers. It is value chain kind of a thing. It starts with the production, but unfortunately, as I earlier told you, about 300 hectares of coffee was being cultivated as at 2007 but right now when you go to the field you don’t get it because you cannot just be maintaining what you don’t have the market for. We are calling on everybody to join hands because it has big potentials. These are the best times when coffee price is very high in the world market. But how do we get to the international markets? The Ministry of Agriculture doesn’t have that capacity; all we need to do is to train them on how to produce it, which is our mandate.
What practical steps have you taken to help the farmers in marketing the product?
We have organized series of meetings with Nigerian Export Promotion Council, Raw Material and Research Institute, Nigeria Standard Organisation, Nigeria Shippers Council, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Plateau Agricultural Development Programme (PADP), local government authorities and Coffee Growers Association to fashion out ways to advance the marketing of coffee in the state. We have interacted with the stakeholders and as you know, there must be good standard for both farming and marketing but we have not broken even in respect of marketing. But government cannot do everything for the farmers. We are appealing to farmers associations and cooperative groups to come together and approach banks and other stakeholders to explore the potentials as coffee has great potentials for both the farmers and the economy of the country.