Willow Empowerment for Grassroot Development Initiative

West Africa used to be the center of the oil industry. The export of palm kernels began in 1832 and by 1911 British West Africa alone exported 157,000tons of which about 75percent come from Nigeria in the 1870's. British administration took the plant to Malaysia in 1934, and that country has 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. Considering the fact that Nigeria, which is the largest consumer of palm oil in Africa and with a population of 197 million (world bank 2018) cannot satisfy the local need for oil palm, but with a short fall of whooping 0.32million metric tons, any support given to the small holders of oil palm plantations will boost local production and possibly encourage export. 
It will amaze you that Nigeria has imported palm oil worth over $3.2 billion dollars in the last ten years. This means that the nation imported a cumulative of 4,960,000 tons of palm oil from 2007 to November 2017. 

Sometimes last four years (2018) the chief executive officer (CEO) of Willow Empowerment For Grass Root Development Initiative (NGO) attended a world Bank meeting in Indonesia. It was at this meeting our organization was saddled with the noble responsibility of empowering Nigeria farmers in oil palm plantation through blended finance for smallholder farmers.

Willow Empowerment For Grass Root Development Initiative is set at eradicating poverty in Nigeria. Having keenly studied the real challenges of the Nigerian populace, the population, geographical locations and all associated factors, we have masterly charted a course, inverted road maps and developed excellent blueprints on how to eradicate poverty in Nigeria through enhancing the oil palm sub sector. Now, providence and profound searching have connected us to the international communities to reach his feat. This project is now our sleeping and waking thought.

ARE THERE GOOD OIL-PALM HYBRID SEEDS AVAILABLE IN NIGERIA?

Willow Empowerment for Grassroot Development Initiative as the answer to annual yield fluctuations in Nigeria oil-palm plantations. Among oil-palm growing countries, it is only in Nigeria that most plantation owners do not care about the quality of their planting materials. They assume that the cheap oil-palm seedlings they see in road side nurseries are as good as any other for their plantations. They do not observe that the so called TENERA seedlings they buy from their regular suppliers differentiate into mixture of the three varieties of palms in their plantations.

In other countries, all planters fully understand that they must only use seeds produced from crosses of Dura and pisifera palms (D X P). By adopting Willow Hybrid Seedlings, Nigeria farmers will be able to overcome the problematic fluctuation and low yields in their plantations.

THE ORIGIN AND PRODUCTION CAPACITY OF WILLOW ALLISSEE PEDIGREE HYBRIDS. Willow Allissee Pedigree Hybrids are derived from high grade NIFOR Extension Work Seeds (EWS) planted in a farm near Benin City, 1975-1989. Their parents were screened free from the debilitating vascular wilt disease of oil-palm between 1973 and 1976. Their yield potential is based on high individual bunch production per annual as well as high oil to bunch ratio. They are authentic D X P hybrids. They all have long spanned fronds which become horizontal at maturity, thus allowing for low density planting of 138-143 palms per hectare. If well managed, each palm can produce up to 25 bunches annually with average single bunch weights of over 20kg at 10 years of age.

What makes our work innovative. It is by the way we achieve dissemination of essential knowledge, and raising awareness about sustainable oil palm plantation lifestyle and development. Our innovation activity is to make Nigeria oil palm plantation more productive for mass economic employment against covid19 scheme. This project is set to achieve its objectives by putting the following in place.

1. To create awareness, orientation on the dangers of neglecting oil palm production and processing in Nigeria and on our economy

2. To train rural small scale active farmers on oil palm production and processing techniques and practices in order to boost their economic status and achieve it.

3. To help them access market to achieve food commodity value chain. The trained individual farmers shall be organized into groups and encouraged them to manage their own operations as well. In the long term , different groups shall carryout needs assessment and start income generating projects. This is an incentive to hold together and champion other communal activities and needs. Income generating activities increases individual capital and are inline with poverty reduction strategies thereby connecting members to uphold the project.

Our Organization Impact will involve methods and mechanism for raising capacity for effective climate change and conservative related planning management and functioning environment governance. Sustainable oil palm production is a team work that provides opportunities to meet across disciplinary boarders to facilitate new collaborations in the areas of economic ecological and social sustainability. Estimate of emissions indicate that if tropical grassland rehabilitated by oil palm plantation, carbon fixation in plantation biomass and soil organic matter not only neutralize emissions caused by grassland conversion, but also result in the removal of about 135mg carbon dioxide per hectare from the atmosphere

According to Henson (199), PPKS 2004-2005 each hectare of oil palm has the capacity to absorb 64tons of carbon dioxide and produce about 19tons of oxygen each year. It is interesting that forests net absorption is about 42tons against 65tons for oil palm and tons of oxygen produced is just 7 percent tons compared to oil palm 19tons. It can be said that if oil palm industry is given support and attention it will contribute very to greenhouse gas emission and increase carbon intake