The Alla Palm Project (APP) has launched a series of sensitizations on the “Farm Hall” initiative in Makurdi, Benue, as it unveils the Tenera oil palm project in Benue.
The Special Adviser to the Benue State Governor on International Investment, Mr Alex Addingi, quoted Mr Sam Agwa, an agripreneur at the unveiling, as outlining the importance of the project.
During the anchoring session, Mr Agwa revealed that the initiative was geared towards ensuring that Benue, under the new Governor Hyacinth Alia, becomes Nigeria’s oil palm revolution spotlight.
According to Agwa, Tenera Palm had the potential of an annual output of over 150 litres of red oil per tree, translating to a potential 15 million naira income for farmers with just 100 fruiting stands.
The new Benue, he said, under the Alia’s leadership would transform into an oil palm industrial hub within the next three years to four.
He added that the mass adoption and cropping by individuals, communities, and households held the key to lifting thousands of poor Benue residents out of multidimensional poverty.
In his own part, Prof. Qrisstuberg Amua of the British Canadian University, Obudu, Cross River, added academic and research weight to the initiative.
Amua pointed out the economic and developmental potential derivable from the numerous by-products of oil palm.
Citing the successes of Asian countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, he then urged the Benue government to adopt the oil palm as a star cash crop.