Ondo
More actions
| Ondo | |
|---|---|
| ActiveRecorded as grown here since 2000 | |
| Geography | |
| Country | Nigeria |
| Province/State | Ondo State |
| Coordinates | 6.91, 5.15 |
| Landscape | |
| Area | 15,000 km² |
| Terrain | Farms reported in forests and forest reserves; approximately Ondo State |
| Growing history | |
| Dated news reports | 2026 |
| Documentation | |
| Appellations | 0 |
| Accessions | 0 |
| Conservation | |
| Populations | none documented yet |
Ondo is a cannabis growing area in south-western Nigeria, named after Ondo State. A survey of six south-western states in 2019 by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) found the densest cannabis cultivation in Edo and Ondo and the highest density of fields along the border between the two states, in remote country with a low population, high forest cover and a high rate of deforestation.[1]: 6, 10 The NDLEA has reported destroying cannabis farms in the state's forests and forest reserves, among them Ala forest in Akure North, where it put the area destroyed in a two-day operation in 2017 at more than 5,000 hectares.[2]
Reports of cultivation
A United Nations study based on field visits in 1997 and 1998 named Ondo among the southern and Middle Belt states where generally low-grade cannabis was grown widely, on farms of up to 20 hectares. Marijuana from Akure was said to be of higher quality and to fetch higher prices.[3]: 22 Nigeria's reply to the UNODC annual reports questionnaire in 2003, with reports of the Dublin Group and the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, placed cultivation in all 36 states. It was most widespread in the north and in the states of Ondo (40 per cent), Delta (30 per cent), Edo and Cross River.[4]: 69
In June 2011 the state police reported finding ten hectares of farmland planted with what was suspected to be cannabis in a thick forest at Emure Ile, in Owo local government area. Six workers were arrested and the farm was handed to the NDLEA.[5] In October 2017 the NDLEA arrested 14 people in Ala forest and, over two days, cut down what the agency put at more than 5,000 hectares of cannabis. The plantation lay about 70 kilometres from the town of Ogbese; its only access road was impassable.[2] The state commander of the NDLEA named Ogbese, Ose and Idanre among five or six other forest reserves where cannabis was planted,[6] and said that planting began in February and that the harvest was then beginning.[7] In May 2019 the NDLEA's chairman said that an operation of its Ondo State command, Operation Thunderstorm, had destroyed 3,900.73 hectares of cannabis "planted in forest reserves".[8]
In February 2021 the Ondo State command seized 711.5 kilograms of cannabis seed in a forest in the Ago Oyibo area of Ogbese, in Akure North; its commander said that the seed would have planted an estimated 250 hectares.[9] The NDLEA's annual report for 2021 gives 183.405 hectares of cannabis farmland destroyed in Ondo State, out of a national total of 405.704 hectares.[10]: 36 In a seven-day operation in February 2022 the agency destroyed 255 hectares of cannabis farms in five forests in the state: Omolowo/Powerline, Ipele, Ala, Ogbese, and Utte and Okuluse. Officers destroyed 19 hectares of irrigated plantations at Ipele and more than 30 hectares of irrigated farms at Ala and found an irrigation pump with more than 700 metres of hose in a ten-hectare farm at Omolowo, near Ogbese. The operation also destroyed 54 hectares in the Utte and Okuluse forests, in Ose and 72 hectares of smaller farms near those it had targeted; 13 people were arrested and 250 kilograms of cannabis seed recovered.[11]
In June 2023 the NDLEA destroyed nine hectares of cannabis in Ala forest,[12] and in July 29 hectares in Ofosu forest, where the owner of the farm was among four people arrested.[13] Its annual report for 2023 found the largest concentrations of plantations over the previous two years in Ondo, Edo, Delta and Ekiti,[14]: 54 and gives 65 hectares destroyed in Ondo in 2023.[14]: 55 The report for 2024 gives four farms covering 70 hectares in the state,[15]: 64 and that for 2025 gives 41 farms covering 82.72 hectares, out of 104 farms destroyed in ten states.[16]: 65 In August 2026 the agency destroyed a four-hectare farm in Ijare forest, in Ifedore local government area, where it put the cannabis destroyed at 10,000 kilograms.[17] In September it destroyed a two-hectare farm in Ita-Ogbolu forest with 5,000 kilograms of cannabis and arrested four people;[18] in October it destroyed a three-hectare farm in the Okemoro Isinbode camp forest, with 7,500 kilograms.[19]
Growing practice
In the 2019 survey about 80 suspected cannabis fields, all of them in Ondo and Edo, could not be confirmed from the aerial photographs, because cannabis may have been grown with other crops or harvested before the photographs were taken.[1]: 11, 38 A dry-season harvest was reported from all six states surveyed, Ondo among them.[1]: 26 Respondents in Ondo and Oyo said that entering cannabis farming took money in advance, a certain social and economic standing and connections with the market.[1]: 25 In Ondo the packages sold weighed from 500 grams to 13 kilograms; the price rose from 1,500 naira a kilogram at harvest to 2,500 naira out of season.[1]: 29
Large illicit fields are found in Akure North. There the wetlands used for rainfed rice are given over to cannabis in larger areas once the flood recedes and maize is intercropped with it. Plots are often abandoned after about four years of use. Soil scientists working with the NDLEA sampled the wetlands of four communities known for cannabis cultivation, under armed escort.[20]: 69–72
In the Strict Nature Reserve 2 of the Akure Forest Reserve, parts of the degraded forest had been planted with cannabis in 2020 and again in 2023. Foresters who sampled the soil there wrote that Queen's plot in the reserve was still under severe pressure from cannabis planters.[21]: 38–39 In a study of land-use conflicts in the Idanre and Oluwa forest reserves, based on fieldwork in 2016 and 2017, one participant said that farmers came into conflict with Indian hemp planters, holding that the crop harmed the fertility of the soil.[22]: 621
Accessions
No accessions documented yet.
Recent news
| Article | Date | Category |
|---|---|---|
| News:2026-09-15/Eradication/ndlea-destroys-a-two-hectare-cannabis-farm-at-ita-ogbolu-forest-in-ondo-state | Eradication |
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (2022). Nigeria Cannabis Survey: 2019 Baseline Assessment in Six States (PDF) (Report). United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Ojuola, Bola (12 October 2017). "Ondo cannabis passion devastating forest". Daily Trust. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (March 1999). The Drug Nexus in Africa (PDF) (Report). ODCCP Studies on Drugs and Crime, Monograph series 1. Vienna: United Nations.
- ↑ United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (2006). "Review of the world cannabis situation" (PDF). Bulletin on Narcotics. LVIII (1 and 2). New York: United Nations (published 2008).
- ↑ "10 Hectares of Indian hemp farmland worth N2b discovered in Ondo". Vanguard. Lagos. 13 June 2011. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ Gbolagunte, Bamigbola (26 October 2017). "NDLEA destroys 5,000 hectares of marijuana farms, arrests 14 suspects". The Sun. Lagos. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ Ayeleso, Yomi (14 October 2017). "NDLEA nabs 14, destroys 5,000 hectares of cannabis in Ondo". BusinessDay. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ "Cannabis: NDLEA disowns Akeredolu, destroys 3,900 hectares in Ondo". Ripples Nigeria. 21 May 2019. Retrieved 14 October 2026.
- ↑ Babatunde, Olaoluwakitan (20 February 2021). "NDLEA Seizes 1,292 Kilograms of Drug in Ondo Forest". ThisDay. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ National Drug Law Enforcement Agency. Annual Report 2021 (PDF) (Report). National Drug Law Enforcement Agency. Retrieved 14 October 2026.
- ↑ Nwannekanma, Bertram (24 February 2022). "NDLEA arrests 13 drug suspects in Ondo". The Guardian. Lagos. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ News Agency of Nigeria (18 June 2023). "NDLEA destroys 30.9 hectares of cannabis farms in Ondo, other states". Peoples Gazette. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ News Agency of Nigeria (23 July 2023). "NDLEA destroys 33 hectares of cannabis farms in Ondo, Edo". The Guardian. Lagos. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 National Drug Law Enforcement Agency. 2023 Annual Report (PDF) (Report). National Drug Law Enforcement Agency. Retrieved 14 October 2026.
- ↑ National Drug Law Enforcement Agency. 2024 Annual Report (PDF) (Report). National Drug Law Enforcement Agency. Retrieved 14 October 2026.
- ↑ National Drug Law Enforcement Agency. 2025 Annual Report (PDF) (Report). National Drug Law Enforcement Agency. Retrieved 14 October 2026.
- ↑ "101-year-old great grandma arrested as NDLEA intercepts cocaine in fufu". National Drug Law Enforcement Agency. 23 August 2026. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ "NDLEA intercepts N3.4bn Loud, opioids, arrests fake police officer, mechanic-drug dealer". National Drug Law Enforcement Agency. 20 September 2026. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ Bolarinwa, David (18 October 2026). "NDLEA Intercepts Saudi-Bound Cannabis Hidden In Palm Oil, Seizes ₦7bn Tramadol". TVC News. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ Kolo, J.; Ukabiala, M. E.; Osakwe, U. C.; Parah, J. B.; Nyamapfene, K.; Obalum, S. E.; Hassan, A. M.; Nnabude, P. C.; Igwe, C. A. (2022). "Overlooked influence of Indian hemp (Cannabis sativa) cultivation on soil physicochemical fertility of humid tropical agroecosystems: lowland soils". West African Journal of Applied Ecology. 30 (1): 68–81.
- ↑ Lawal, A.; Adekunle, V. A. J.; Akindele, T. A.; Akinbi, O. J. (2025). "Impact of Cannabis sativa cultivation on soil physicochemical properties in Akure Forest Reserve, Ondo State, Nigeria". Proceedings of the Third Faculty of Agriculture International Conference, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria, 12–14 March 2025. pp. 37–45.
- ↑ Azeez, I. O.; Aluko, O. J. (2019). "Analysis of factors instigating land use conflicts in selected forest reserves of Ondo State, Nigeria". Journal of Environmental Protection. 10 (5): 614–624. doi:10.4236/jep.2019.105036.