Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Mr Joseph Boahen Aidoo, has assured the public that all measures have been to ensure the security and tenure of the National Cocoa Rehabilitation Programme (NCRP) are sustainable.
“Sustainability of the NRCP is assured because all the parameters have been drawn and the framework is already there; all the necessary measures are in place to make it sustainable,” Mr Aidoo gave the assurance in an interview with journalists after a recent tour of some NCRP sites in the Western North.
He noted that farmers had appreciated the efforts of the government because the packages and interventions in NCRP were unique sayings “it had never, ever happened in this country, and this is revolutionary.”
“In 2017, we began to look for the key to unlock the solution to Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus Disease (CSSVD). A government has come in and is making this remarkable feat to give hope to farmers when they despaired. Trees were dying and we’ve revived the local economy. Today, there’s a lot of plantain being transported to Kumasi and Sekondi- Takoradi. Why do you change it?
“Farmers appreciate government because this is the first time we are planting food crops for farmers and giving them plantain suckers. It doesn’t happen, this is a caring government and also concerned about the cocoa industry is the backbone of the economy”, MrAidoo argued.
He told journalists that, the NCRP came with a huge cost as one-third of the cocoa-growing area was diseased, and still spreading fast to threaten the longevity and prospects of the industry in Ghana.
As part of the NCRP, COCOBOD CEO said the government had to introduce a compensation module and other incentives, including the distribution of free plantain suckers.
Mr. Aidoo assured that “COCOBOD remains committed to replanting diseased and over-aged cocoa trees to improve cocoa production in Ghana, particularly in the Western North.”
He said that a survey in 2017 showed that 315,000 hectares of cocoa farms had been affected by CSSVD with about 400,000 hectares of cocoa farms also moribund or over-aged, meaning that, more than 700,000 hectares of farms, one-third of Ghana’s cocoa landmass were affected, and undermining prospects in the cocoa industry.
He noted “If one-third of Ghana’s cocoa landmass had not been producing, it means the cocoa industry had suffered, and so, the government came in with the intervention for the Western North, the epicenter of the disease, where 200,000 hectares of farms were not growing well.
“And it’s so, because, once upon a time, Bonsu Nkwanta, Yawmatwa, and Sefwi Aknotombra were the centre of cocoa production. All these areas had cocoa trees dying.”
Mr Aidoo mentioned that there was the need to plant crops like plantain for food and shades and also plant economic trees like Ofram and Odum because cocoa trees thrived under shady conditions.