Edo Govt, Presco Partners On Oil Palm Project

The Edo State Governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki, has said the state government will be collaborating with Presco Plc on the development of high yielding oil palm seeds as part of the Edo State Oil Palm Programme.

The governor disclosed this while receiving the Chairman, Board of Directors, Presco, Mr Pierre Vandebeeck, on a courtesy visit at the Government House in Benin on Tuesday.

The ESOPP is an initiative of the state government to revive the sector for global competitiveness.

The Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, at the launch of the ESOPP, committed N69bn as part of efforts to revive the country’s oil palm industry.

Obaseki said in a statement on Tuesday that the development of the high-yielding seeds was necessary to make the business more profitable for farmers as oil palm had a long gestation period.

He said, “We want to collaborate in the area of research to have one of the world’s best planting materials. This is so that we can go back to where we used to be in terms of oil palm production in the world.

“Presco has a laboratory in Europe and they are thinking of expanding the laboratory here to Nigeria so that they can reproduce high-quality planting materials.”

He added that discussions were ongoing with Presco on supporting the state in the implementation of the CBN’s oil palm initiative and for the company to expand to other locations in the state.

Vandebeeck said the Edo State Government had shown willingness to collaborate on the development of the technology in the country, which would also benefit smallholder oil palm farms.