Don’t forget that before we discovered oil in Nigeria, agriculture was a very serious venture; the west was known for Cocoa; the North for groundnut and the East for palm oil.

Abundant rainfall last week in most of Ivory Coast’s principal cocoa regions could boost the forthcoming October-to-March main crop but more sunshine is needed to accelerate the growth of small pods, farmers said on Monday.

In its effort to diversify the economy, Anambra State government said it has the potentials to produce cashew for local consumption and for export, but needs Federal Government’s support to realise the objective.

Aside the agricultural potentials in palm oil and cocoa, Ondo State has a greater potential in cashew production, with its availability in all the 3,296 communities in the 18 council areas of the state.

Scattered rain and lots of sun in most of Ivory Coast’s main cocoa growing regions brightened hopes for the cocoa main crop last week, although some eastern plantations still needed more rain, farmers said on Monday.

Persistent cool weather in some of Ivory Coast’s main cocoa growing regions could hurt output during the start of the forthcoming main crop, farmers said on Monday.

In the western region of Soubre, at the heart of the cocoa belt, an analyst reported 37 millimetres of rains this week, compared with 64 mm last week.

Every Nigerian state produces at least one or more distinctive agricultural by-products with great potential as livestock supplementary feed resources.

Now that the West African nation is in the rainy season, farmers said they hoped abundant downpours and sunny weather could help a strong end to the crop.

The Ooni of Ife Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, on Monday, took a bold step to erase the memories of the Ife-Modakeke communal war when he unveiled a nursery plant of one million cocoa pots and trees.

Lagos, March 24, 2015 (NAN) The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on Tuesday restated its commitment to support Nigerian farmers in boosting cocoa production towards diversification of the nation’s economy.