COCOCBOD made available 50million free cocoa seedlings
to farmers in the current crop season. This is in addition to free fertilizer
distribution to the cocoa farmers.
Deputy Chief Executive, Dr. Francis Kofi Oppong, has
however acknowledged the seedlings were not enough to reach all farmers.
“COCOBOD will continue with its support to cocoa
farmers,” he said. “In the coming year, we hope to distribute more than
50million because it did not reach all farmers; we will decide whether to give
out 60-70million seedlings”.
Smuggling of cocoa beans, the impact of climate change
on production and illegal mining activities on cocoa farms are major challenges
to higher cocoa productivity in Ghana.
But COCOBOD is also worried at the ageing population of
cocoa farmers.
Increasing access to the hybrid cocoa pods, which can
be harvested between 2-3 years, has been identified as a means to attract the
youth to venture the sector.
Meanwhile, Dr. Oppong has enjoined farmers to resist any
attempt by cocoa health and extension officers to take away their voters
identity cards in a bid to register them to access cocoa seedlings and
fertilizers.
“All therein is to register with the extension officer,
who will take a measurement of the farm to ascertain the number of cocoa seeds
needed,” he stated. “Don’t give out your voter’s ID to the officer, and report
such person because that is not the instruction for the seed distribution. The
officer only needs a means to prove that you are a farmer, so it is enough just
to show your ID that you are a farmer, it should not be taken away”.
Dr. Oppong spoke at the 21st Annual
Delegates Conference of the Kuapa Kokoo Farmers Union in Kumasi.
Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh
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