The Chief Executive of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Mr Joseph Boahen Aidoo has explained that loans taken by the Government was used to save the industry.
According to him, some time ago, cocoa farmers were faced with many challenges especially with diseases including Cocoa swollen shoot virus disease (CSSVD), “Witches’ Broom” and therefore the Government had to step in to salvage the situation.
He said due to the diseases, farmers had to cut all the cocoa trees and plant plantain to reclaim the land.
Due to this, He said the government had to borrow money to buy new seeds, pay farmers monthly and as well support them to plant plantain to support their family.
The move, Mr Joseph Boahen Aidoo said, yielded positive results, noting the importance of securing the loan facility.
He said this while speaking with Nana Yaw Fianko on the Agenda show on Atinka TV.
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He noted that over 700,000 acres of cocoa farm lands were affected by the disease and the only means to tackle it was to uproot the trees.
According to him, Sefwi was the epicenter of the disease, adding that 320,000 hectares of land were affected, saying that out of that, the disease affected about 200,000.
He admitted that in 2010 Ghana harvested a good number of cocoa but somewhere along the line, it declined due to the diseases.
“We went to the African development bank and they gave us the money and we made the farmers know that it was not their fight but the government’s. So we went to buy the new seeds, planted and took care of the farms for two years, and we gave them compensation, every pole or every hectare was GHC1,000. Now most of the cocoa is grown and about 68,000 hectares have been grown and as of now, about 40,000 hectares are fully ready for production and the farmers have started benefiting from it,” he said.
Meanwhile, he said the farms are doing better now than before after the intervention.
“Sometimes people say we have amassed loans, this was part of it, we used it for something profitable, we used it to save the industry and the farmers also know that we used it to save the industry,if not the disease would have been spreading by now,”he added.
Mr Joseph Boahen Aidoo said although the spread of the disease has not stopped completely, they were able to contain it from causing more harm.
Despite the feat, he said Ghana has not been able to generate the money it has to from cocoa, blaming it on many challenges.
Aside from the disease, he said another thing that affects cocoa farming seriously is illegal mining.
The COCOBOD CEO explained that the miners dig the pit close to the cocoa farms and it draws water from the land under the cocoa farms which results in dryness and it affects the growth of the cocoa.
He said one other thing that also affected cocoa farming is El-nino. He said this was not the first time it was happening, saying that last year, it brought excessive rainfall which also affected the cocoa trees.
Due to the above challenges, he said Ghana’s production will be one of the lowest this year.
“Last year it rained in August, ordinarily, it should not rain in August so the non-stop which occurred last year destroyed a lot of things.
Ghana| Atinkaonline.com| Porcia Oforiwaa Ofori
