As President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo tours Greater-Accra, the Chief Executive of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Joseph Boahen Aidoo is also on a three-day working tour of the Western South Region to help address challenges facing farmers and educate them on how to get greater yield.
The visit is also to familiarize himself with the cocoa
growing communities and interface with farmers and COCOBOD staff on the
field.This comes after a similar tour of the Eastern and Ashanti Regions.
He is scheduled to make his stops at nine districts in the
region, where he will address farmer rallies at Daboase, Gwira-Anyinase,
Anyinase, Samreboi, Asankragua, MansoAmenfi, WassaAkropong, Diaso and Dunkwa.
At each rally the Chief Executive will address the farmers
on the various interventions by COCOBOD and gather first-hand knowledge of the
challenges they face in their various farming communities.
In his first rally address at Daboase on Tuesday, he spoke about the importance of the various Productivity Enhancement Programmes (PEPs) for the improvement and long term sustainability of cocoa farming.
Each rally will be an opportunity to educate farmers on the
importance of observing good farming practices, especially, pruning, fertilizer
application and hand pollination to ensure a bountiful cocoa harvest.
He is as well expected to, at the rallies, talk about the
Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus Disease (CSSVD) which has been detected in parts of
the region and explain the cocoa rehabilitation intervention which is supposed
to eradicate the disease from the entire country.
Early this year, COCOBOD began to strongly push for the
formation of cocoa farmer cooperatives at their various farming communities, so
farmers can as a group, directly access farming implement, fertilizers and
credit facilities to aid in their farming business.
Conversely, the Chief Executive has also announced a total
ban on the application of weedicides on cocoa farms and a switch to the use of
dual purpose motorized slashers for weeding and pruning.
During these three days, he will give the farmers an update
on the preparation towards the implementation of their pension scheme, which is
expected to be fully operational next year. Linked to that is the cocoa farmer
census, which is soon to be underway.
Joseph Aidoo’s rally addresses will immediately be followed
by question and answer sessions with the farmers gathered. In his tour of the
Eastern and Ashanti Regions earlier in the year, the top concerns for the
farmers were the price of cocoa – which has since been announced; the timely
provision of adequate quantities of fertilizer; the construction of cocoa roads
and the provision of basic amenities for the communities.
Hon. Aidoo assured the farmers that he will see to it that
COCOBOD promptly addresses the concerns which fall within its mandate while he
strongly advocates on behalf of the farmers for the government to address the
others.
Accompanying him on this working tour are senior management
members of COCOBOD, including the Deputy Chief Executive of Operations.
