THE ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF COCOA AND AVOCADO PEAR IN NIGERIA
ABSTRACT
This study is designed to investigate the economic importance of cocoa and avocado pear in Nigeria. In an attempt to carry out this investigation, four research questions were formulated to capture the economic effect of cocoa and avocado pear in the study area.  50 respondents which are cocoa or avocado pear farmers were randomly selected from the population. A two section questionnaires was used to elicit information from the respondents (farmers). Section A consists of question on personal data of the respondents while section B contains questions that were formulated based on the research questions designed in the study. The following recommendations were made; research institutions such as national Root and Cereals Research institute (NRCRI), Umudike should be adequately funded for the development and dissemination of appropriate agricultural technologies, there is the need for a strong public, private partnership in order to encourage private sector participation in terms of input supply, technical and extension support as well as development of an effective marketing system.  
  TABLE OF CONTENT
Chapter One – introduction         
Background of the study
Statement of problem
Purpose of study
Significance of the study
Scope of study
Limitation
Definition of terms
Chapter Two           
Review of Related Literature
Chapter Three         
Population                                               
Sample
Sampling procedure
Research instrument
Administration of data collection
Method of data analysis
Analysis of data
Chapter Four           
Presentation, analysis and discussion of result
Chapter Five            
Summary
Recommendation
Conclusion
References
Questionnaire         
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
            Nigeria economy has been dominated since the late nineteen-sixties by the export of oil, a sector dominated by the Government by the mid-nineteen-seventies, about 75% of Federal revenue came from petroleum. The share of exports accounted for by fuel, mineral and metals continued to rise and stood at 96% in 1991 (World Bank, 1993). In 2004, the share of export commodities from petroleum and petroleum products was 95%, while cocoa, rubber and others contributed most of the remainder of exports. Nigeria’s industrial production growth rate was 2.3% (2004 estimate) (CIA World Face Book, 2004). Before Nigeria attained independence, agriculture was the most important sector of the economy and accounted for more than 50% of GDP and more than 75% of export earnings. Consequently, with the rapid expansion of the petroleum industry, agricultural development was neglected, and the sector entered a relative decline. Thus, between the mid-nineteen-sixties and the mid-nineteen-eighties, Nigeria moved from a position of self-sufficiency in basic food stuffs to one of heavy dependence on imports. Under-investment, a steady drift away from the land to urban areas (cities) increased consumers preference for imported foodstuff (particularly rice and wheat) and outdated farming techniques continued to keep the level of food production well behind the rate of population growth.      
            Food output showed the strongest growth, rising by 7% in 1984 and by an estimated 10% in 1985, while total agricultural output increased by 38% agriculture was the only sector to show any significant expansion in 1986, an estimated increase in overall agricultural production of 2.1% from 1981-94 the average annual growth of GDP was 2.3% compared to 4.6% for the earlier period 1970-80. Average growth from agriculture from 1980-1992 was estimated to be 3.6% and this compares favorably with an average of 1.7% for Sub-Saharan Africa. For the earlier period agricultural production in Nigeria declined by -0.1% (World bank, 1993). Agriculture (including hunting, forestry and fishing) contributed 33.5% of GDP, in 1993 and an estimated 63.7% of the labour force was employed in the sector in that year. Traditional smallholders, who use simple techniques of production and the bush-fallow system of cultivation account for around two thirds of Nigeria’s total agricultural production. The number of state farms is relatively small, and of decreasing importance. Subsistence food crops (mainly sorghum, maize, yams, cassava, rice and millet) are grown in the central and western areas of Nigeria, and are traded largely outside the cash economy, cash crops (mainly Palm Kernels Cotton, cocoa, rubber and groundnuts) are grown in the east, west,. Mid west and northern states of the country. It is estimated that Nigeria has about 71/2 million hectares of available agricultural land and about half of which is currently being utilized. Increasingly rainfall from the semi-arid north to the tropical rain forest south allows great crop diversity., from short season cereals, sorghum, millet and wheat in the north, to cassava, yams and rice in the wetter areas. In the drier north cash crops include cotton,  groundnuts and tobacco, while in the south cocoa, coffee, rubber, oil palm, sugar and ginger are grown. A steady growth has been observed in the agricultural production of both staple and cash crops since 1990 and the aggregate index of agricultural production increase by 4.1% in 1997 but declined in 1998. However, from 1999 all the major staples recorded significant increases over the preceding years level. The intensification of on-farm adaptive research by some relevant agencies, the supply of high quality seeds/seedlings are better usage of improved storage facilities contributed to the observed improvement in staple food production. Estimate of production output for principal staple crops in  2003 were maize (5.2 million tons), sorghum (8.0 million tons) millet (6.1 million tons) and vegetables (9.1 million tons).
Among the cash crops, only cocoa makes any significant contribution to exports, Nigeria was the world fourth largest exporter of cocoa beans, in 1990/91, with sales of 135, 000 tons accounting for about 7.1% of world trade in this commodity. But Nigeria’s share of the world cocoa market has been substantially reduced in recent  years, owing to aging trees, low producer prices, black pod disease, smuggling and labour shortages. Recent emphasis has been placed on encouraging domestic cocoa-processing, to provide higher value products for export. Nigeria was the world’s leading exporter of palm oil, until overtaken by Malaysia in 1971. T6 he production of oil palm products has increased somewhat since 21000 however, the country is still heavily dependent on imports in order to satisfy domestic needs  like other cash-crop  sectors, output of palm products suffered from labour shortages, inefficient traditional harvesting methods, and lack of vital inputs and low levels of capital investment. However, a sharp reduction in imports and large-scale replanting resulted in a substantial increase in production during the mid-nineteen eighties. Trader liberalization and the exchange rate policies adopted in the nineteen-eighties have contributed to the improvement in palm, oil production. Also there have been substantial investments in oil milling facilities to produce vegetable oil for domestic use and since 2000 oil palm products continued to increase for the reasons stated above. For these reasons, the project is set up to look into the economic importance of cocoa and avocado pear in Nigeria.          
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
            The negative situation is due to the poor agricultural education or extension services. Most farmers are not formally educated or exposed to some of the agricultural practices through extension demonstration. Also extension workers are few and they have no means of transport to ensure their regular visit to farmers farm.
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
            The following are the purpose of the study;
1.      Identify the role of agriculture as means of livelihood
2.      Examine the effect of poor farming
3.      Examine available farming equipment
4.      Examine methods of carrying out farming activities
5.      Offer suggestion that will be considered meaningful for agricultural practice.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
1.      The finding of this study will be important to all those connected with farming activities.
2.      The result of the study will help in a long way on how best faming work can be carried out.
3.      The study will also suggest a guide to this formation of an ideal farming programme geared towards the complete development of farmers.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1.      Inadequate extension workers affect the teaching and learning of agricultural practice of cocoa and avocado pear.
2.      Adequate land help the farmers to have increase in farm produce of cocoa and avocado pears.
3.      Poor farm tools give rise to low productivity of cash crops.
4.      Inadequate finance limit farmers from having increase in production.   
SCOPE OF THE STUDY
            In order to avoid unmanaged work the researcher has limited herself to the houses of five farmers in Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo State. those houses include;
1.      Mr. Collins Egbe
2.      Mr. Aigbe Osaretin
3.      Mr. Orobosa osaro
4.      Mr. Iziegbe Ogiede
5.      Mr. Aisosa Obasuyi