THE Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) is set to roll out an irrigation programme for farmers in cocoa-growing areas to ensure an all-year-round water supply to their Farmlands.
The move is expected to help the farmers to increase yields,
This has become necessary following drought in those areas, resulting in the withering of most of the cocoa trees, stunted growth and low yield.
The Chief Executive Officer CEO) of COCOBOD, Mr Joseph Boahene Aidoo, announced this to cocoa farmers at Kumikrom in the Western North Region at the start of a two-day working tour to some farms,
The tour provided the CEO and other officials with the opportunity to inspect rehabilitation works by the farmers,
Mr Aidoo said in addition to the introduction of the irrigation system.
farmers must apply the droppings of fowls around their crops to serve as organic fertiliser.
He said a well-rehabilitated farm with irrigation could fetch 1,809 pods on one tree, which would yield 40 bags of cocoa pods per acre to improve their living conditions
Russia-Ukraine effect
He hinted at a shortage of fertilizer in the coming months due to Russia
Ukraine war so COCOBOD had decided to engage farmers to adopt best practices to increase productivity.
The CEO commended the farmers for the massive pruning of the trees and advised them to minimize the planting of cassava to intersperse their farms.
He cautioned against the use of unfriendly farming practices such as the application of unapproved chemicals on the cocoa trees.
The COCOBOD has also distributed 162,800 plantain suckers and cocoa seedlings to farmers recently.” he stated and commended COCOBOD for the intervention to boost cocoa production in the area.
Traditional authorities told to help halt galamsey
He led officials of COCOBOD to visit the KUMAD Global Impact Limited and Afarinick Company Limited’s planting seedling nursery site for the COCOBOD Rehabilitation Project at Suaman-Dadieso.
Addressing a durbar of the chiefs and people, he appealed to traditional rulers to stamp their authority to uproot the galamsey menace, especially in cocoa-growing areas of the country.
According to him, galamsey activities continue to wreak havoc on cocoa farms, which is taking a toll on the cocoa industry.
He said as custodians of the land, traditional authorities wield more power and owed it a sacred duty to conserve, preserve and protect the land from all forms of degradation
Mr Aidoo bemoaned the situation where many of the cocoa farmlands had been depleted with the indiscriminate cutting of cocoa trees for galamsey activities
He explained that plans to introduce an irrigation system for the farming risk being hindered by the negative impact of galamsey, because farmers cannot rely on polluted streams with all the toxins to irrigate their farmlands.
He was worried about the considerable decline of cocoa production in the Western-North Region, which used to produce a chunk of cocoa in Ghana, saying COCOBOD is moving heaven and earth with major innovative interventions to reverse the trend.
The Chief of Suaman-Dadieso, Nana Kofi Armah, lauded the efforts of COCOBOD to streamline issues in the cocoa industry to boost production.
He admitted that the galamsey menace had become a source of worry to farmers in the Western-North Region.
Nana Kofi Armah commended Mr Boahen Aidoo for holding the key to the future of the cocoa industry in Ghana and appealed to COCOBOD to release money given to cocoa farmers on time and emphasized the need for an irrigation system to irrigate cocoa farmlands all year round.
He acknowledged that the plantain seedlings nursery, which would feed cocoa farms, has provided employment to a sizeable number of youth in the area.
At Tawiah-Krom, Mr Boahen Aidoo assured the cocoa farmers that COCOBOD would continue to design human-centred policies as part of the Cocoa Enhancement Programme to boost cocoa production and create more employment to better living conditions for people in cocoa-growing areas,
Western-North Region cocoa roads see a facelift
Cocoa-growing roads in the Western-North Region have seen a major boost under the ‘Year of the Roads’ project touted by President Akuffo-Addo.
As a result, cocoa farmers can cart their farm produce to the Produce Buying Company (PBC) on time.
Mr Aidoo said this when he inspected works on the 38km Benchema-Adjoalua road, explaining that the stretch of road is the heart of the cocoa industry and would be completed in no lime
He said the S43 project was funded by COCOBOD and the Government of Ghana and commended the Amandi Construction Works for the quality of work and the solid layer used to asphalt the road.
He indicated that reports from drivers of long trucks loaded with cocoa found it difficult to climb the hills on the serpentine portion of the road in the past.
The CEO said the construction of a steel bridge at Big, which used to be narrow, is underway and would be completed in the coming months,
Mr Boahen Aidoo said the government had done well in terms of roads and rejuvenated cocoa farms and assured cocoa-growing areas of witnessing unprecedented construction works on their roads in the coming months,
Source: GNA