Indigenous cocoa farmers in Ondo State have petitioned Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa, warning that a newly proposed Forest Farming Policy threatens to cripple the cocoa sector, which is the state's economic backbone. The core of the grievance is a sudden, massive increase in regulatory fees and an "unjust" restriction on farming tenure.
The farmers, operating in forest reserves around Idanre and Akure, are protesting a proposed levy of ₦250,000 per hectare for compliance, a sharp jump from the previous ₦20,000 per hectare they consistently paid. This new charge includes ₦150,000 for polygon mapping and ₦100,000 for an agro-forestry programme. Their appeal, sent through their legal counsel, demands an urgent review to prevent thousands of smallholders from being pushed out of business.
The exorbitant levy comes with a further structural burden: the new policy limits indigenous farmers to a five-year farming permit. This has been described by the farmers as "unjust" given that a cocoa tree has a productive lifespan of over 40 years. This short tenure makes long-term investment, replanting, and sustainable cultivation practically impossible for smallholders.
Compounding the financial pressure, the Ministry of Agriculture recently raised the cocoa grading fee from ₦11,000 per tonne to a rate that translates to approximately ₦660,000 per trailer of cocoa, according to the farmers' petition. They argue that these dual pressures are completely unsustainable, especially amid the sharp drop in cocoa prices in the local market.
The protesting farmers allege that the policy demonstrates a clear discrimination in favour of large-scale investors. Their petition highlighted that while smallholders are restricted to five-year permits, large-scale agro-industrial firms are granted long-term leases—such as 40 to 80 years—at significantly lower per-hectare costs.
The farmers also questioned the high cost of the ₦100,000 agro-forestry component, arguing that a measure of tree seeds capable of producing 1,000 trees costs only about ₦5,000 on the open market. They urged the government to either subsidise the polygon mapping initiative or sponsor it entirely, noting that exporters are already mapping farmlands for free in non-forest communities as part of their efforts to comply with the European Union's Deforestation Regulation (EUDR).
The government has previously stated that the new policy, including the polygon mapping and agro-forestry programmes, is necessary to align the state’s cocoa sector with emerging global standards, particularly the EUDR, which aims to prohibit the sale of products linked to deforestation in the EU market.
