Lagos Targets 10 Million Coconut Trees By 2023

The Lagos State Coconut Development Authority says it plans to plant over 10 million coconut trees in the next five years.

General Manager, LASCODA, Oladapo Olakulehin, stated this at the World Coconut Tree Planting Day event inaugurated by JAM The Coconut Food Company recently at the Muri Okunola Park, Victoria Island, Lagos.

According to Olakulehin, if achieved, the feat would make Nigeria one of the top 10 coconut producing countries in the world. The country currently ranks 18th in position.

Olakulehin noted that the number of coconut trees in Nigeria’s coastal areas are decreasing by the years, hence the need for mass planting of coconut trees.

He, therefore, warned that if care is not taken, there may not be coconut trees on the land again in the next 20 years.

Lagos, he also disclosed, accounted for nearly 70 per cent of Nigeria’s coconut production and called on residents to imbibe the culture of coconut tree planting in their homes where there is space for such.

“Nigeria is under-utilizing coconut and its product as we are only making use of less than 20 per cent of what we can get from it,” he said.

Olakulehin added that LACSODA, which was formed for the promotion, production, commercialisation and utilisation of coconut in 1996, was part of the foresight of the Lagos State government to, among other factors, prevent the extinction of coconut trees in Nigeria.

He applauded JAM The Coconut Food Company for their exemplary initiative to plant 2000 coconut trees in Lagos.