The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) is to resume rehabilitation of farms affected by Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus Disease (CSSVD) across the cocoa growing areas.According to the chief Executive officer of COCOBOD, Dr Ransford Abbey, 40,000 hectares out of 156,000 hectares of affected farms were successfully rehabilitated during the 20214-2023 cocoa season and handed over to farmers while 27,000 hectares were abandoned mid-way due to financial challenges.The rehabilitation process whose timeline was not given, involves the cutting down of the diseased trees, treating the farms and replanting with disease-tolerant, early bearing and high yielding cocoa varieties.The move, he emphasized, had become necessary to boost cocoa production so as to regain the sector's lost past glory.Dr Abbey announced this during a meeting with cocoa farmers at Duayaw-Nkwanta in the Tano North Municipality of Ahafo Region, as part of a working visit to the Bono and Ahafo Regions.The visit was to afford him the opportunity to interact with the farmers to get first-hand information upon assumption of office.The COCOBOD CEO cautioned the farmers against hoarding and smuggling of their cocoa beans in an anticipation of higher price stating "the 2025/2026 producer price of cocoa would be announced in August this year.
Government intends to give farmers a price which will be bigger than what our neighbours, Ivory Coast, would offer their farmers".To mitigate the impact of climate change on cocoa farming, Dr Abbey stated that COCOBOD would drill more boreholes in cocoa farms to aid in irrigation to counter hot temperatures emanating from climate changeHe commended the farmers for their huge contributions to the country's economy assuring them that the government was committed to improving their lot.Madam Paulina Terkyi Agyemang, a cocoa farmer at Duayaw-Nkwanta, advised her fellow farmers to embrace organic farming such as using organic fertilisers, including animal droppings as a climate-adaptation strategy as well as to protect the environment and humans.She also appealed for financial support to aid farmers to hire labourers, as well as buy inputs for their farming activities.The president of Brong Ahafo Women Cooperative Farmers and Marketing Central Women Union Limited (BAWCOF), Martha Addai, in a welcome address pledged the support of the Union to the new COCOBOD to ensure the success of the sector.She appealed to COCOBOD to facilitate petty loans to farmers to support their farming business.The Union has 7,129 women from 96 cooperatives from nine cocoa districts."The Union cultivated 6,857.82 hectares of cocoa, producing approximately over 8,000 bags of cocoa beans annually," she revealed. FROM DANIEL DZIRASAH, DUAYAW-NKWANTA
