Mr. Samuel Asare Ankamah, the Deputy Executive Director of Cocoa Health, and Extension Division (CHED) in charge of Agronomy of COCOBOD, has assured cocoa farmers of their readiness to assist them to revive the industry under the Cocoa Enhancement Programme. According to him, the government through COCOBOD had put in place prudent measures to boost cocoa production to better a lot of cocoa farmers and grow the economy. Mr Ankamah who is the immediate past Manager for the Western-South Cocoa Region gave the assurance when he met cocoa farmers at Anomawobidi and Ayiem near Mpohor as part of a three-day working tour of the Western-South Cocoa Region. He was accompanied by the Director in charge of Operations, Cocoa Health, and Extension Division (CHED), Mr Samuel Essuman, the Manager, Western-South Region, Mr Samuel Osei and his Deputy, Mr Emmanuel Adjei among other officers in the Region. Addressing cocoa farmers of the two communities at separate meetings, Mr Asare Ankamah said though COCOBOD had decided to pay farmers who engaged in weeding, many were unable to meet the target because such labour was scarce due to the Galamsey activities. Mr Ankamah said as part of farm maintenance, COCOBOD had outsourced the weeding component now to Afranick and Kumad Global Companies to engage labourers to weed farms of cocoa farmers who refused to weed under the programme. Mr Asare Ankamah reminded farmers to weed their farms five times in a year and asked farmers who wanted to cut trees and weed their farms to formalize their request for COCOBOD to pay them. He said COCOBOD would do all to streamline the cocoa business to increase productivity and contribute more to Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The Manager of the Western-South Region, Mr Samuel Osei advised farmers to undertake constant pruning of their cocoa farms for maximum yield. He advised farmers to avoid applying unapproved chemicals on their farms.
Source: Ghana News Agency
