Bitter Kola Commercial Farming

Garcinia kola (bitter kola, a name sometimes also used for G. afzelii) is a species of flowering plant in the Clusiaceae or Guttiferae family. It is found in Benin, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests.

The fruit, seeds, nuts and bark of the plant have been used for centuries in folk medicine to treat ailments from coughs to fever. According to a report from the Center For International Forestry Research, Garcinia kola trade is still important to the tribes and villages in Nigeria.

 

CULTIVATION

Garcinia kola trees grow in humid rainforests near the coast as a medium sized tree that can tolerate shade. Despite the socio-economic importance of Garcinia kola, cultivation of the species is limited. Factors that have discouraged farmers from growing Garcinia kola include difficulties in germination that reduces seedling availability. Most productive trees were left in the wild when farmers cut plots out of the forest. Researchers have studied the germination problems of Garcinia kola seeds and suggested various means of breaking its dormancy. However, there is still a need to investigate simple and practicable methods that farmers could easily adopt with low technological input. Garcinia kola seeds has both seeds coat dormancy and physiological dormancy probably imposed by the chemicals in the seed. Seed coat dormancy of Garcinia kola can be reduced by removing the seed coat before sowing, while physiological dormancy can be reduced by soaking in water for 72 hours. Removal of the seed coat, soaking in water for 72 hours, placing inside air tight transparent polythene bag and sprinkling of water on the seeds when needed for constant moisture gives an early germination period of two weeks.

Vegetative propagation provides the best option to get out of the problem of difficulty in germination. This the farmer who is interested in the farming of bitter kola in large scale will be taught and when applied effectively will be able to get out of the issues presently by delay germination of bitter kola when planted and this will reduce waiting period before harvesting after planting.

 

PRODUCTION

The trees when planted from seed can bear fruit after 10 to 12 years. At its peak, a mature tree yields on average, almost 500 fruits and 1700 nuts each year.

Extracting and marketing the nuts

the fruit pulp is collected after falling to the ground and is kept until its orange coloured, velvety skin softens. This may take five to six days. Extracting the nuts is a simple and not very labour intensive. The harvest is thrashed to release each fruit’s three to four kernels. These are referred to as bitter cola nuts as soon as the fruit pulp is thoroughly washed off. At this point the nuts are ready for eating fresh or can be air dried and stored in a cool, dry place. Bitter kola can be exported in small or large quantities and this fetch good reward. Export of bitter kola is something that is a little technical because the product need to be exported as per specification of the buyer overseas to avoid any rejection. Export planning and support should be sort for new exporters and BAN will gladly help an investor in this area. Bitter kola may be exported dried or ground depending on the specification of the buyer.

Processing bitter cola takes time but entails little or no cost to the farmers involved in this activity.
Bitter cola’s increasing commercial value means it is important for farmers to cultivate rather than rely on the dwindling wild supplies.
Multiple Uses

In herbal medicine which is an integral part of life in this part of Africa, the fruit pulp is used for the treatment of jaundice, or high fever, while the bark of the tree is used in medicinal preparations to help heal various ailments.

The nuts are also dried, ground and mixed with honey to make a traditional cough mixture. In the last three to four years ground nuts has also been used as an industrial bitter agent in some Nigerian breweries. The hard wood of the bitter cola is not often used for timber or firewood, but the stems branches and roots are commonly used in the production of chew sticks.

The major inputs for commercial BITTER KOLA farming are; LAND, IMPROVED CULTIVERS, TRAINING, FERTILISER, DISEASE AND PEST CONTROL, FINANCE and MARKET.

 

LAND

Procuring Land for such commercial farming has to be done by professionals who have the eagle eye to decode the soil texture without much examination. It is also easier to source for land for agriculture through professionals because they have extensive network and can arrange Land for you in short notice and in a cost effective manner. There is little need to purchase land for farming in large scale from the beginning as this will tie down available capital, thus it is advisable to lease and subsequently pay for the land from the proceed of the farm. BUSINESS ADVISORY NETWORK is a guru in this regard and will help you arrange choice farm land at the best rate, all you have to do is to talk to us.

 

TRAINING

We will guide you on best planting season, spacing, fertilizer type, how to source fertilizer, fertilizer application. Weed control, Crops you may intercrop with BITTER KOLA, the effects of intercropping on BITTER KOLA  yield, Storage and processing.

 

FINANCE

The central bank of Nigeria has a lot of incentives/ credits for commercial farmers at a reduced interest rate of 9% per annum. Most of these are organized by the central bank of Nigeria although accessed through the commercial bank. BAN will guide you on how to source credit under any of these credits listed below;

 

Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme Fund (ACGSF) The Fund guarantees credit facilities extended to farmers by banks up to 75% of the amount in default net of any security realized. The Fund is managed by the Central Bank of Nigeria, through this guarantee it is easy For commercial banks to loan to farmers not fearing

Agricultural Credit Support Scheme (ACSS) ACSS funds are disbursed to farmers and agro-allied entrepreneurs at a single-digit interest rate of 8.0 percent. At the commencement of the project support, banks will grant loans to qualified applicants at 14.0 per cent interest rate. Applicants who pay back their facilities on schedule are to enjoy a rebate of 6.0 per cent, thus reducing the effective rate of interest to be paid by farmers to 8.0 per cent.

 

Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS) This credit scheme is specifically targeted to finance the country’s agricultural value chain (production, processing, storage and marketing). The maximum interest rate to the borrower under the scheme shall not exceed 9 per cent, inclusive of all charges.

 

Nigeria Incentive Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending ( NIRSAL) Risk is the single-most important factor that prevents banks from lending to agriculture. To change banks’ perception that agriculture is a high-risk sector, NIRSAL has a USD300 Million Risk-Sharing Facility that it uses to share their losses on agricultural loans through Credit Risk Guarantees. NIRSAL shares risk with banks ranging from 30% to 75% of face value depending on segment.

This also includes a guarantee fee of 1% per annum on outstanding protected principal and interest. Up to 40% of interest cost rebated to select value chain participants every 90 days if loan remains in good standing (no partial or full default). All crops, livestock and related supportive economic activity across the value chain are supported by this facility.

The news is that government is willing and doing everything to encourage farming in Nigeria because that’s where the country straight lies. Nigeria is endowed with arable land and fresh water resources when viewed as a whole with approximately 61 million hectares of the land cultivable while the total renewable water resources is about 280 km3/year; which include river Niger, river Benue, lake Chad, Osun river, Hadejia River, Bonny river and a host of others. The major soil types in Nigeria, according to FAO soil taxonomist are fluvisols, regosols, gleysols, acrisols, ferrasols, alisols, lixisols, cambisols, luvisols, nitosols, arenosols and vertisols. These soil types vary in their potential for agricultural use according to FAO.

Nigerian soils can be classified into groups made up of four (climatic) zones that are soil associations. The groups are:

1. Northern zone of sandy soils
2. Interior zone of laterite soils
3. Southern belt of forest soils
4. Alluvial soils Zones

 

Northern zone of sandy soils: This area lies in the very northern parts of the country. This area lies in the extreme north with proximity to the fringes of the fast- encroaching Sahara desert. It is characterized by soils formed by deposition of sand by the wind. These soils might have been formed from wind-sorted desert sands that accumulated over long periods of time when the Sahara desert encroached several kilometers south of its present limits. The soils of this zone are very good in the production of groundnut, sorghum, cowpea, and millet.

 

Interior zone of laterite soils: This zone is made up of a mixture of sand and clay. They are grey to black clay, poorly drained and seasonally flooded forming the “fadama”. The Biu Plateau has rich soil that is productive and offers prospects for the expansion of the areas of cotton production, soybeans, yam and other legumes.

 

Southern belt of forest soils: Soils in this zone broadly represent those of the humid, tropical forest climate zones of the south where the wet season is long, the harmattan season short and forest cover is dense. Local soil types depend largely on parent rock; where the underlying rocks are granite or clay, the soils is a rich clayey loam. These soils are very good in growing crops like cocoa, oil palm, rubber, Cassava.

 

Zone of alluvial soils: These soils are found along the flooded plains of rivers, deltas, along the coastal flats. This zone extends from the coastal inland and runs along the valleys of the Niger and the Benue rivers, thus cutting across the vegetational zones. Soils in this zone are characteristic of fresh-water soil of grey to white sand, grey clay and sandy clay with humid topsoil. Another group consists of brownish to black saline mangrove soils, with a mat of rootlets. This soil type is very good for rice etc.

 

FARM EQUIPMENT

BAN will also help in securing farming equipment. This may be achieved through the federal and state government partnership with the support of any of the credit schemes. Through this farm equipment can be acquired or leased.

 

SECURITY

Security of the farm is of utmost importance, thus adequate security must be put in place to eliminate/ reduce pilferage in the farm.

 

 BITTER KOLA VALUE CHAIN

We will not only guide you on BITTER KOLA farming. We will introduce you to BITTER KOLA business value chain depending on your interest. Even though this requires huge investment, the return is enormous and the market potential is also huge.

If you are desirous of farming with minimal discomfort and also wants to stay out of other losses that might result due to lack of planning talk to us at