Nigeria, May 24 -- It was not the setting expected of farmland harbouring a rare crop. About a plot of well-tended land enmeshed in other plantations was all Samuel Okoli needed to keep his passion of growing apples in Kaduna, the capital of Kaduna State.

The trees remain flourishing green - green amidst the blazing sun of a prolonged dry season that only gave way to wetness a few days ago. Ordinarily, apple trees are not expected of a tropical region as Kaduna's.

Like many, Mr Okoli had heard the usual saying that apples cannot grow in Nigeria. But unlike those who took the 'myth' as part of knowledge, he was determined to try the impossible.

It was not by accident that the graduate of Electrical Engineering succeeded in growing two s...