The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) is to renew rehabilitation of farms affected by Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus Illness (CSSVD) throughout the cocoa developing areas.
The transfer had turn out to be crucial to spice up cocoa manufacturing in order to regain the sector’s misplaced previous glory.
The rehabilitation course of whose timeline was not given, entails the reducing down of the diseased bushes, treating the farms and replanting with disease-tolerant, early bearing and excessive yielding cocoa varieties.
In line with the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of COCOBOD, Dr Randy Abbey, 40,000 hectares out of 156,000 hectares of affected farms had been efficiently rehabilitated and handed over to farmers in 2024 whereas 27,000 hectares had been deserted mid-way as a result of monetary challenges.
Dr Abbey introduced this throughout a gathering with cocoa farmers at Duayaw-Nkwanta within the Tano North Municipality of Ahafo Area, as a part of a pieceing go to to the Bono and Ahafo Areas.
The go to was to afford him the chance to work together with the farmers to get first-hand data upon assumption of workplace.
The COCOBOD CEO cautioned the farmers towards hoarding and smuggling of their cocoa beans in an anticipation of upper worth stating “the 2025/2026 producer worth of cocoa can be introduced in August this 12 months. Authorities intends to present farmers a worth which might be larger than what our neighbours, Ivory Coast, would provide their farmers”.
To mitigate the influence of local weather change on cocoa farming, Dr Abbey said that COCOBOD would drill extra boreholes in cocoa farms to help in irrigation to counter sizzling temperatures emanating from local weather change
He recommended the farmers for his or her large contributions to the nation’s financial system assuring them that the federal government was dedicated to bettering their lot.
Ms Paulina Terkyi Agyemang, a cocoa farmer at Duayaw-Nkwanta, suggested her fellow farmers to embrace organic farming resembling utilizing natural fertilisers, together with animal droppings as a climate-adaptation technique in addition to to guard the surroundings and people.
She additionally appealed for monetary assist to help farmers to rent labourers, in addition to purchase inputs for his or her farming actions.
The president of Brong Ahafo Girls Cooperative Farmers and Advertising Central Girls Union Restricted (BAWCOF), Martha Addai, in a welcome advertcostume pledged the assist of the Union to the brand new COCOBOD to make sure the success of the sector.
She appealed to COCOBOD to facilitate petty loans to farmers to assist their farming enterprise.
The Union has 7,129 girls from 96 cooperatives from 9 cocoa districts.
“The Union cultivated 6,857.82 hectares of cocoa, producing roughly over 8,000 baggage of cocoa beans yearly,” she revealed.
FROM DANIEL DZIRASAH, DUAYAW-NKWANTA
