Beware Of Destructive Cocoa Politics

The ongoing politics within the cocoa sector has the risk of fragmenting the nation, if politicians do not stop the way they handle natural resource issues in the country.

Since pre-independence, issues that border on the nation’s main cash crop had been handled in such a heavily-skewed manner that it could affect our cohesive national agenda.

Nobody can run away from the fact that cocoa had been the mainstay of the economy for close to a century. Until recently, it was Ghana’s second leading foreign exchange earner, worth about 30 percent of all revenue from export and was responsible for about 57% of overall agricultural export. The sector directly and indirectly employed about 2 million people, and constituted a large chunk of Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

But one thing that must be understood clearly is that the country has many natural resources that contribute to the smooth running of the economy. Other major economic resources, apart from cocoa, include gold, manganese, bauxite, industrial diamonds, timber, rubber, hydropower, petroleum, silver, lithium, salt and limestone. In fact, as we speak, Gold and bauxite alone are said to account for about 60% of Ghana’s primary exports.

The is why we find the posture of the 2017 National Best Farmer, Mr. Philip Agyeman, on government’s inability to increase the producer price of cocoa very unfortunate.

He reportedly frowned at news that government had no option than to maintain the cocoa producer price at GH¢7,600 per metric ton, and GH¢475 per bag, due to the continuous decline of the commodity price on the world market, and argued that children of cocoa farmers attend the same schools as children of other professionals; and that government should have factored all these in the determination of the producer price.

Reports say other farmer group representatives also rushed to the podium to register their objection to the price offer, with some of them having to be physically restrained by other participants at the 2018 Cocoa Day event in Accra.

In our view, one cannot downplay the stance of the farmers by claiming they did not understand the minister’s explanation that Ghana does not determine the producer price of cocoa. We think there is more to it than meets the eye.

There is already in place a scholarship scheme for children of cocoa farmers, and also a special fund to construct roads in cocoa-growing areas. One may wonder whether we do not equally need special funds and scholarship schemes for people and regions that produce corn, cassava, yam and millet because of the role they play in the economy.

THE PUBLISHER thinks it is high time people are told the hard truth that national resources are meant for the development of the entire country before others begin to agitate for similar largesse for all mining areas in the country.

By the way, is the sea also not part of our natural resources? Don’t we ship our cocoa through the ports of Tema and Takoradi? What about the Volta River Authority, which generates power to virtually all parts of the country?

While we have nothing against the agitation by cocoa farmers for better means of livelihood, we are of the opinion that politicians must take a look at other areas.

With the discovery of lithium and more oil in various parts of the country, it has become even more evident that the natural resource base of the country is fast being diversified.