The Cocoa Association of Nigeria on Monday rejected the increase in the registration fees payable by exporters and agents of the commodity in Ondo State.
It asked the state government to rescind the decision because it was capable of impoverishing the farmers.
The National President of the association, Mr. Sayina Riman, in a statement in Akure, said although CAN was aware that the government needed money for developmental projects, such money should not be made from local farmers.
He said the registration fee being paid by the Licensed Buying Agents had increased from N15,000 to N60,000, while another was raised from N80,000 to N250,000.
Riman advised the government not to apply the same system that was used to increase fees in other sectors to agriculture, saying the sector was the highest employer of labour in the state.
According to him, increasing the fees payable by farmers means increasing their poverty levels, adding that agriculture had been used to alleviate poverty among the people of the state.
Riman, however, stated that there was the need for the government to give concession to agriculture, particularly cocoa, when it comes to payment of various fees in the state.
The CAN president said such an indiscriminate increase was "inhuman, insensitive and does not take the farmers into consideration," adding that the government should return to status quo ante.
