The Ghana COCOBOD is to provide 5.5 million cocoa seedlings to farmers in the Ashanti Region during this year’s planting season.
This is part of COCOBOD’s initiative to distribute 50 million cocoa seedlings to farmers across the country.
Addressing members of the Ashanti Akyem Cocoa Farmers Union (AACUFO) during its inauguration at Konongo-Odumasi, the Ashanti Regional Manager of COCOBOD, Mrs Faustina Asamany, reiterated the government’s commitment to increase cocoa production to more than one million metric tonnes by 2016.
The manager also indicated that under the Cocoa Health & Extension Division (CHED), free fertilisers would be distributed to farmers to increase their yield and ease their financial burdens.
According to Mrs Asamany, Ammonium Sulphate, liquid and granular fertilisers would be applied on farms under the programme.
She, however, stated that farms infected with the cocoa swollen shoot virus did not qualify for the fertiliser package. The manager advised the farmers to cut down such trees and plant new seedlings.
Mrs Asamany further said that COCOBOD would continue its Cocoa Disease and Pest Control (CODAPEC) programme, which involves the free supply of agro-chemicals and spraying against capsid and black pod diseases.
She, therefore, advised cocoa farmers to register with associations or groups to enable them benefit from the numerous incentive packages her outfit was offering.
She said it had come to the notice of the COCOBOD that incentive packages such as the spraying of farms and agro-chemicals meant for farmers were being sold on the open market and warned perpetrators of such illegal activities to desist from them.
The Chairman of AACUFO, Mr Anane Agyei-Frimpong, called on COCOBOD to ensure that children of cocoa farmers benefited from the cocoa scholarship scheme.
He also mentioned the deplorable nature of roads leading to most cocoa farms as some of the reasons that caused the destruction of their produce.
The District Chief Executive of Ashanti Akyem South, Mr Degraft Fokuo, commended the farmers for coming together to support the wellbeing of cocoa farmers in the region.
