Gov’t Committed to Supporting Cocoa Farmers — COCOBOD CEO

Government has once again reiterated its unwavering commitment to the sustenance of Ghana’s cocoa sector.

According to the Chief Executive of the COCOBOD, Mr. Joseph Boahen Aidoo, what the sector urgently needs to beef up its economic prospects is “continuous and sustainable production of cocoa.”

This, he said, can only come to fruition if farmers are properly facilitated, encouraged and motivated.

Speaking to some cocoa farmers who had paid a courtesy call on him at his office in Accra yesterday said, he disclosed that government had outlined several productivity enhancement programmes to facilitate farmers.

“We want to inject into our farming system, improved methods of farming, best agro-economic practices and then the most modern technology,” he said.

As part of the enhancement programme, farmers will from next year, begin the use of motorised slashers instead of age-old weedicides, to control weed on their farms.

“Weedicides like 24-D are toxic and destroy not only the weeds, but every micro-organism in the soil, including the worms that churn and nourish the soil,” Mr. Aidoo said.

The COCOBOD CEO stated that continuous use of weedicides will compromise the quality of cocoa produced which can in turn jeopardise its performance on the international market.

Broken Scale

Mr. Aidoo said with the help of the Ghana Standard Authority (GSA), his outfit had spotted some purchasing clerks manipulating of their weighing scales, and warned that COCOBOD will soon begin penalising persons who engage in this dishonest act, pending the procurement of electronic scales for the various cocoa societies.

Courtesy call

The delegation was led by 2018’s National Best Cocoa Farmer, Mr. Charles Opoku Gyamfi, a cocoa farmer from Anokyekrom in the Brong Ahafo Region.

Speaking on behalf of cocoa farmers, he said there were still a lot of challenges facing the industry, including the need for proper road networks, adding that, most ‘cocoa roads’ were in bad shape while road networks were completely absent in some cocoa growing areas.

“We don’t even need tarred roads, what we need is for government to grade the roads and make it commutable,” Mr. Gyamfi said.

Responding to this, the COCOBOD boss said, government is set to begin the construction of several Feeder roads in 2019.

The farmers also called for more dams and irrigation projects to help sustain cocoa farms in the Brong Ahafo Region.

One Youth One Acre

The current best cocoa farmer placed before government a proposal he calls ‘One Youth, One Acre’ project.

He said this project, if considered, will help the youth develop  greater interest in cocoa farming.

“I’m asking government to consider this project…all you have to do is to provide one acre for each person and add free seedlings…it will get to a time the yield will be so huge and this can push the cocoa sector forward,” he said.

By: Grace Ablewor Sogbey/ [email protected]