Joseph Boahen Aidoo speaking at the programme launch
THE CHIEF Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Joseph Boahen Aidoo, has hinted of an increase in cocoa productivity by over 1.5 kilogrammes per hectare from the current national average estimate of 450 kilogrammes per hectare.
He said the adoption of good agronomic practices such as the application of fertilizers, shade management, mistletoe removal, weeding and pest and disease control may account for the yield increase.
Speaking at the launch of the National Cocoa Rehabilitation Programme at Sefwi-Wiawso in the Western North Region on Thursday, Mr. Aidoo stated that data generated from October 2006 to December 2017 on a resurvey programme showed that cocoa swollen shoot virus disease (CSSVD) was spreading at an alarming rate.
According to him, a survey of the country’s cocoa farms in 2017 revealed that out of the total national cultivated cocoa area of 1,913,166 million hectares, about 17 per cent of the cocoa tree stock was affected by the cocoa swollen shoot virus disease (CSSVD), and 23 per cent was overage (more than 30 years).
The COCOBOD boss indicated that this meant that 40 per cent of cocoa farms in Ghana are diseased, over aged and moribund, and added that there is an urgent need to rehabilitate these farms and make them more productive.
Mr. Boahen Aidoo said this is why the National Cocoa Rehabilitation Programme had been brought up to help address the challenge in order to increase and sustain cocoa production in the country “through cutting and replacing of old and diseased cocoa trees.”
He explained that the objective of the programme is intended to assist farmers to achieve higher productivity, encourage them to adopt best agronomic practices and adopt the use of medium and high farming technologies through back-up efficient extension service delivery.
Mr. Boahen Aidoo noted that the rehabilitation programme would also encourage farmers to replant moribund and disease affected farms with hybrid cocoa variety, which is a high-yielding disease tolerant and early bearing.
He expressed the hope that the programmes would enhance food production in the scheme areas through the cultivation of grains, tubers and plantains to support the school feeding programme and to ensure food security.
He said the programme is also aimed at incorporating planting of economic trees seedlings to provide permanent shade and in long term improve the ecosystem in light of climate change, and provide jobs for the rural communities, particularly the youth to enhance their income and living standards, and motivate them to take to cocoa cultivation.
Swollen shoot replant
President Akufo-Addo said the government had resolved to replant all cocoa trees affected by the swollen shoot disease in all the cocoa cultivation regions in the country in order to help improve the yield per hectare for cocoa farmers.
“It is important to note the significance of paying compensation to farmers and landowners, alike, where tenancy arrangement exists. This has never happened before,” he said.
According to the President, his administration came to meet a cocoa sector of about 760,000 hectares which was unproductive and unable to guarantee the sustainability of the industry.
“Because of the neglect of the recent past, the disease had spread to cover every COCOBOD delineated cocoa region in the country – Western North, Western South, Central, Eastern, Ashanti, Brong Ahafo and Volta,” the President indicated.
He added, “Two-thirds of the blighted cocoa area in Ghana, representing some 214,000 hectares, was found in the Western North Region alone.”
He said several cocoa farmlands have been lost to the CSSVD in the Western North Region, which produced over 330,000 tons of cocoa in 2010/2011, is now producing below 150,000 tons today.
“It is in response to this challenge that my government took the bold and pragmatic step for COCOBOD to secure a US$600 million receivable-backed syndicated loan facility,” indicating that more than two-thirds of the amount would directly go into the rehabilitation of the disease affected and overage tree stock and productivity enhancement activities.
This, he noted, included pruning and hand pollination and irrigation of cocoa farms, adding that the remaining amount would go to support local processing and value addition as well as the promotion of local consumption of cocoa products.
By Ernest Kofi Adu