By Robert Tachie Menson, GNA
Issakrom (B/R), Aug. 25, GNA – The Ghana Cocoa
Board (COCOBOD) has recruited 750 young men and women this year under the cocoa
pollination programme to boost yields of cocoa farms in the Dormaa Central
Municipality of the Bono Region.
Mr. David Afriyie Gyebi, the Municipal Cocoa
Officer, Cocoa Health and Extension Division (CHED) of the COCOBOD said in an
interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) during a field trip to a 160-acre
cocoa farm at Issakrom, a farming community in the Municipality.
The visit was to afford his outfit an
opportunity to assess, monitor and evaluate the impact and progress of the
pollination exercise at the farm.
Mr. Gyebi said most of the recruits were
either unemployed Junior/Senior High School (J/SHS) graduates or dropouts,
adding that in 2017, 350 pollinators were engaged, as against 450 in 2018.
The objective of the programme was to
recruit 30,000 pollinators nationwide to scale up the national production of
cocoa beans from 800,000 metric tonnes per annum to 1 million metric tonnes.
“The COCOBOD would like to use the
pollination exercise to address the 200,000 metric tonnes shortfall because
about 90 per cent of germinated cocoa flowers dropped and wasted annually”, Mr.
Gyebi explained.
The programme he said was being used to
rectify that anomaly to double the yields of cocoa farms.
Mr. Gyebi said the criteria for selection of
a particular farm for the exercise depended on three main factors – a farm with
flowered cocoa trees to aid the pollination process, farms that were not
infected by Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus and farms between eight to 20 years old.
He urged cocoa farmers to apply fertilizer
constantly on their farms to aid the process of germination of cocoa flowers.
Mr. Gyebi said “a group of five people is
expected to pollinate one acre for a farmer within a week from 0600 hours to
1300 hours each day and within one month 600 acres for 600 farms are supposed
to be pollinated”.
Ms. Rejoice Ameyaa, group leader for
pollinators in the farm appealed to the COCOBOD to provide them with personal
protective equipment (PPE) – wellington boots, rain coats and cutlasses to
enhance safety in the farms.
Mr. Issah Sawadogo, the owner of the farm
commended government for initiating the pollination programme because it would
help to double yields and ensure profitability in the farming business.
GNA
