Seventy percent of coconut production in Nigeria happens in Lagos State, this is according to the Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture, Hakeem Adeniji.
Adeniji said this on Tuesday at the Coconut Value Chain Stakeholders Forum tagged, “Addressing the Bottlenecks in the Coconut Value Chain to ensure Sustainable Development in a 21st Century Economy,” in Lagos.
He said that the state had abundant coconut trees, producing 200 million “husked nuts” yearly.
He said, “Coconut grows naturally along the coastal terrain and cultivated in about 92 countries of the world, including India, Indonesia, Philippines, Sri-Lanka and Nigeria.
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“Seventy per cent of the total production from Nigeria is produced in Lagos State and ranks Nigeria 19th in the World Coconut producing countries.
“In addition, close to 80 per cent of the coconut value chain activities, especially in the area of supply of improved seedlings to commercial coconut growers in other 26 coconut producing states of Nigeria is currently being driven from and by Lagos State.
“The state is naturally blessed with a vast Coconut Belt embedded with an abundance of Coconut resources and it has comparative advantages over other crops in the country at large.
“It has about 3million trees with an annual production of 200million husked nuts while about 20,000 small scale farming families derive their livelihood from it and the number increases daily.”
