The Cross River State Government has unveiled a strategic plan to make the state a leading coffee production and processing hub.
The implementation framework, unveiled at a state government press briefing in Calabar, is expected to drive the state’s seven-year Coffee Revolution agenda and position Cross River as a leading producer of premium coffee in Nigeria and across Africa.
The Cross River State Government says the roadmap is designed to strengthen every stage of the coffee value chain, from production and processing to marketing and export. It hopes this will create employment opportunities and attract investment into the agricultural sector.
The Commissioner for Agriculture and Irrigation Development, Johnson Ebokpo, says the government will establish a Coffee Development Agency, create a Coffee Commodity Exchange, and support communal washing and drying stations to improve quality, connect farmers directly with buyers, and increase their earnings.
The commissioner says Governor Bassey Otu has approved the distribution of 30 million coffee seedlings under the programme, with one million already distributed and four million more scheduled for the current planting season.
The Commissioner for Information, Erasmus Ekpang, says the initiative reflects the Otu administration’s commitment to diversifying the state’s economy through agriculture, while the Chairman of the Cross River State Forestry Commission, George O’Ben-Etchi, assures that coffee cultivation will be guided by environmental sustainability and carried out outside protected forest reserves.
The state government says the reforms are expected to strengthen the coffee value chain, improve rural livelihoods, and establish Cross River as a competitive player in the global coffee market.
(Editor: Ada Ononye)
