West Africa used to be the centre of the palm oil industry. The
export of palm kernels began in 1832 and by 1911 “British” West Africa
alone exported 157,000 tonnes of which about 75 percent came from
Nigeria.
In the 1870s, British administrators took the plant to Malaysia
and in 1934 that country surpassed Nigeria as the largest exporter of
the product. Led by Nigeria and Zaire, Africa continued to lead the
world in production and export of palm oil throughout the first half of
the 20th century. By 1966, however, Malaysia and Indonesia had surpassed
Africa’s total palm oil production.
In Nigeria, oil palm is indigenous to the coastal plain, having
migrated inland as a staple crop. For millions of Nigerians, oil palm
cultivation is part of the way of life –indeed it is part of their
culture. However, during the past decades the country has become a net
importer of palm oil. While in the early 1960s, Nigeria’s palm oil
production accounted for 43% of the world production, nowadays it only
accounts for 7% of total global output.
In Nigeria 80% of production comes from dispersed smallholders who
harvest semi-wild plants and use manual processing techniques. Several
million smallholders are spread over an estimated area ranging from 1.65
million hectares to 2.4 million hectares and to a maximum of 3 million hectares.
As documented in the case of Akwa Ibom State, women play an important
role in the production, storage and commercialization of red palm oil
(see details in annex below).
Regarding plantations, estimates range from 169,000 hectares (72,000
ha of estate plantations and 97,000 ha of smallholder plantations) to 360,000 hectares of plantations.
Many of those plantations are the result of past attempts of the
Nigerian government to implement large-scale plantations, most of which
resulted in complete failures. Such were the cases of the 1960’s Cross
River State project and of the European Union-funded “Oil palm belt
rural development programme” in the 1990’s. This project included the
plantation of 6,750 hectares of oil palm within an area thought to be
one of the largest remnants of tropical rainforest in Nigeria and it was
implemented by a company called Risonpalm Ltd., partly owned by the
government. In spite of local opposition, the project moved forward and
EU funding was only discontinued in 1995, seven years after its
approval. The plantation was abandoned in 1999 and reactivated in 2003.
In 2010, the local governor announced his intention to privatize it,
stating that “We will not put money into Risonpalm again” and that “We
will only bring people who will put in their money and manage Risonpalm
very well.”
The World Bank played an important role in the promotion of the oil
palm business in Nigeria. According to a recent World Bank document,
Nigeria has been “the second largest recipient of World Bank palm oil
sector projects, with six projects over the 1975 to 2009 period. One
project is still under implementation. Results achieved included the
plantation of 42,658 ha of oil palm, as well as road improvement and
increased milling capacity.
Government management of its plantation estates proved to be
disastrous. As the governor of Rivers State recently said “Government
has put so much money in Risonpalm and so many people became rich out of
Risonpalm by stealing the money. Now we will not put money again so
that people won’t steal our money anymore.”
As a result, many oil palm producers eventually inherited abandoned
government plantations which were sub-divided and leased to private
producers. Some individual owners formed limited liability companies.
These have younger plants/fields some of which are yet to fruit, while
most of the oil palm plantations are over 30 years.
The Federal Government appears to be now willing to revitalise oil
palm production. In April 2010, the government launched –together with
the UN’s Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the government
of Cameroon- a Common Fund for Commodities “in order to improve the
income generating potential of oil palm in West and Central Africa.” The
initiative was developed by UNIDO and funding is shared between
Nigeria, Cameroon, UNIDO and the private sector.
In line with the above, officials of Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm
Research (NIFOR) have recently said that “promotion of private sector
participation in oil palm plantation holds the ace in effective revival
of the produce business in the country.” Director of NIFOR, Dr Dere Okiy
has stated that “the land tenure system in the country” is a “limiting
factor against private mass production of palm oil by individuals” and
“called on local and state governments to provide land areas to oil palm
farmers to encourage mass production of palm oil.”
The increasing imports of palm oil -widely used by the Nigerian
people as edible oil- may help to explain the recent government’s
interest in palm oil production. Such may be the case with Presco, a
subsidiary of Belgian company Siat S.A. that has oil palm plantations in
two concessions in Edo State (the Obaretin Estate with 7,000 hectares
and the Ologbo Estate with 6,000 hectares), and one in Delta State (the
Cowan Estate, with 3,000 hectares). The company processes the oil palm
fruit into different products within the country.
Italian company Fri-El Green Power is a good example of the above.
The company first started investigating the potential for palm oil
production in Nigeria during 2005 and in 2007 the first privatisation
agreement for the government-owned Abia Palm oil palm plantation –in
southern Nigeria- was signed. In July 2008, Fri-El Abia Palm Ltd. was
officially opened by the Abia State governor during a ceremony in
Ohambele. Shortly after this, work on the rehabilitation of the
plantation started. At the same time the old oil mill in Mbwasi was
repaired and brought into production.
The Italian company plans to eventually use the palm oil processed in
Nigeria to fuel liquid biomass power plants in Europe. Fri El Green
Power has an 80% stake in the project while the Abia State Government
has 20% with an obligation to transfer 10% to the local community. The
company got a concession of 11,292 hectares, including the former Abia
Palm plantation, and a right to extend the concession up to 100,000 ha.
In spite of Nigeria’s massive electricity shortage, Fri-El Green
Power does not plan to supply electricity locally. According to the
company’s president Thomas Gostner. “We plan to invest in the palm oil
plantation, the processing of the fruit and convert it into electricity
in Europe.” In the best of cases, “each oil mill can additionally
produce some electricity for local needs using waste product.”
Everything seems to point at the possible expansion of oil palm
plantations in Nigeria -revitalizing old ones and establishing new ones-
both aimed at the national and international market. Local communities
should be aware that local and state governments may in the future – as
NIFOR demands- “provide land areas to oil palm farmers to encourage mass
production of palm oil.”
Oil Women of Akwa Ibom State
The red palm oil is a common ingredient in the cooking of almost
every type of dish prepared in Nigeria. Akwa Ibom state, a coastal state
in south eastern Nigeria is one of the areas where oil is produced in
large quantities, mainly by women.
The processing of the fruits into vegetable oil is most commonly
carried out by women. It begins with harvesting the ripe fruits which
grows in clusters weighing between 20-30 Kilos. The women work
communally in groups of 2 or 3. 10-20 bunches of ripe fruit from the
palm tree are cut and gathered. The harvested fruits are then cut into
smaller clusters and sprinkled with water, and then, covered with thick
jute bags or banana leaves to aid fermentation and make it easy for the
seeds to be picked easily from its spiky stalks.
Two or three days after, the seeds are picked, washed and packed in
to iron drums and boiled. This process is tedious. Fire kindled from
gathered fire-wood is usually prepared a night before and at intervals,
rekindled to keep the fire cooking constantly hot. As early as 4 or 5
a.m. the boiled seeds whose fleshy pericarp has become soft and tender
are scooped with a small basket or sieve bowl into an earth dug-out
mortar, which has been fitted with a metal drum. The boiled seeds are
then pounded with a wooden pestle to separate the fleshy pericarp from
its hard kernel seeds.
The next stage involves scooping this mixture onto a flat trough or
onto the ground which had been covered with banana leaves. The kernel
seeds are then separated from the fibrous mash. This is then scooped
into a cylindrical hollow press. The wrench is then turned slowly and
gradually, as this is being done, the extracted oil from the holes in
the press is guided through a duct at the bottom of the press into a
large bowl, trough or container. This process is carried out several
times until oil is drained from the marshy mixture.
The next stage is carefully draining the oil into containers; in
doing so, the women are careful not to allow dirt, fiber or other
foreign matter into the oil. The finished product if in large quantity
may be further stored in larger metal drums awaiting buyers who come to
buy them off these women and transported to other towns. If the oil is
not so large in quantity they are then taken to the local market for
sale; either way, the Akwa Ibom woman earns her money. Though the
process is tedious, the oil is top quality if processed by an
experienced producer.
Excerpted from “Oil Women of Akwa Ibom State” by Patrick B. Akpan
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