Mr. William Mintah Wiafe who is the Technical Manager in charge of Cocoa Health and Extension Division at COCOBOD has notified, there are several ways to cultivate cocoa to produce more cocoa beans.
He said planting more cocoa trees and checking the humidity of land and it suitability for the plantation must be first considerations.
Mr. Wiafe therefore cautioned that, cocoa, though it is a crop, it cultivation is quite exceptional as compare to maize, rice, cassava and other agric crops because it cannot withstand high temperature.
According to him, the unfavorable weather condition in the Northern Region is not suitable for cocoa production.
The Technical Manager advised that, farmers in cocoa production should ensure that, their choice of land is nutritious and free from gravels.
He explained that in this modern time, it’s not appropriate to do stumping during land preparation for cultivating any crop, but rather farmers especially cocoa farmers should practice more weeding when preparing the land for production. Meanwhile, the Technical experts, described between December and January as the best periods for the cultivation.
Mr. Mintah Wiafe that, farmers with hopes of cultivating cocoa in the future to start growing plantain on their piece of land to enrich the nutrient of the soil before growing the cocoa.
Source: Joyce Bedeley/ritefmonline.org
