Cocoa farmers are pained and for justifiable reasons; they are not being paid for their produce.
What they are currently enduring is the last thing they expected having been hopeful about improved living conditions under a new political administration as they were promised.
Cocoa farmers across the country hosted many politicians ahead of the 2024 elections when they came seeking their votes with sugar-coated promises they could not snub.
Politicians on the then opposition side, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), touched the right chord when they especially told their hosts that should they vote for them the producer price of the golden pod would appreciate. The New Patriotic Party (NPP) government was shortchanging them, they told their gullible hosts.
Enter the NDC government and the promised word has not been implemented. Today, those of them who sold their produce to the Licensed Buying Companies (LBC) are awaiting payments for the transaction, the date this would come to pass unknown.
The implication of what is playing out on the livelihood of the farmers can only be imagined. From the payment of their kids’ school fees to accessing medical attention, the challenges continue to mount.
In the face of the foregoing, the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) is yet to issue a convincing statement enough to calm the disturbed farmers.
Communications, convincing ones of course, matter under the circumstances, and this is what we expect from the COCOBOD or government.
Previous snippets of responses from some state actors only aggravated the crisis because they are anything but veracious. The usual propaganda-laced statements characteristic of the government, which sought to implicate the previous government in the debacle, is what is being churned out.
In the face of a crisis which is what is facing the country today, and the government especially, let the assigns be sincere in their approach to the challenge by speaking the truth. Claims of our cocoa too expensive and so turning away prospective buyers is damn disingenuous.
The talk about a possible reduction in the producer price of cocoa has made disturbing rounds already. This is something which would not be acceptable to the farmers, we can bet.
Having been disappointed already for a failed promise to increase the price of the beans, accepting a reduction of the existing one can only aggravate their depressed plight.
COCOBOD requires a massive Public Relations (PR) intervention in the matter at stake devoid of the campaign trail rhetoric. The optics must change even as other means of addressing the challenge are being considered.
Cocoa farmers who have not been paid for the purchases of the last three months or so would be further hurt when they are told about the purchase of a luxury car for the CEO of the company and dozens of pickup cars.
When the CEO visits farmers and decides to carry along his personal chair still covered in protective stuff, he is distancing himself from them. In case of crisis such as being witnessed, communications should especially be well crafted so farmers will not be in doubt about the authenticity of what they are being told.
The claim by the COCOBOD that they have paid a certain amount of money to farmers is being disputed, and that does not help matters.
Desperation is pushing some of them to do the unacceptable – selling valuable cocoa farms to illegal miners for quick cash payment. Is that what we want?