Dr Isaac Yaw Opoku
THE MEMBER of Parliament (MP) for Offinso South, Dr. Isaac Yaw Opoku, has asked Parliament to make a law that will make the treatment of Swollen Shoot (CSSVD)-affected farms compulsory.
According to him, the CSSVD is a potential threat to the cocoa industry in Ghana, intimating that large tracts of cocoa farms in the Western North, Western, Eastern, Bono, Bono East, Ahafo, Central, Volta and Ashanti Regions have been severely affected by the disease, with most of the trees completely dead.
Making a statement on the Floor of Parliament on Thursday, Dr. Opoku recounted his experience of what he saw when he visited CSSVD affected farms across the country with the chief executive of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) between 2019 and 2020.
“Mr. Speaker, the CSSVD situation is extremely horrible and terrifying. In all areas visited, particularly in the Western North, Western South, Eastern Region, and parts of Bono, Bono East, Ahafo, Central, Volta and Ashanti Regions, large tracts of cocoa farms were severely affected with most of the trees completely dead,” he stressed.
Background
The CSSVD was first reported in the country in 1936 in the Eastern Region and spread to other cocoa growing regions, he indicated and continued that the disease occurs mainly in the West African Sub-region.
“It was first reported in Nigeria in 1944, Cote D’Ivoire in 1946, Togo in 1949 and Sierra Leone in 1963. The regional occurrence of the disease and the quest for research information on ways to manage the problem led to the establishment of the West Africa Cocoa Research Institute in 1938, today Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana at Tafo,” he disclosed.
The MP said the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) had identified 12 strains of the virus in the Western Region and adjoining areas of the Bono and Ahafo Regions which are more virulent than the other strains in the country.
“Mr. Speaker, the cocoa swollen shoot virus is one of the limiting factors of cocoa production in Ghana. CRIG has reported that the disease can substantially reduce yield by up to 70% and eventual death of cocoa trees within 18-24 months,” he stated.
Dr. Opoku said the only effective method of managing the CSSVD, currently, is the “cutting out” method – thus the removal of affected trees and their contacts and replacing them with tolerant hybrid varieties.
According to him, the main challenges of the CSSVD control programme have been the breaks and interruptions in the control programmes due to insufficient or lack of funds that invariably leads to the build-up and spread-out of the disease.
He pointed out that farmers’ opposition to treatment initially also resulted in low response to treatment as also was the low compensation paid at a slow rate at initial time to the affected farmers.
The Offinso South MP indicated that COCOBOD had put in place measures to control the disease by tripling the number of extension staff assisting farmers in the management of the disease, initiating a third nationwide survey to determine the extent of the disease infection, and improving education and incentive packages to farmers.
He added that there had also been payment compensation not only to affected farmers but also to land owners and established technical co-operation between Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana to embark on “back-to-back” disease control.
“Mr. Speaker, recognising the damaging effects of the disease and the uneconomic contribution of average farms to cocoa production, COCOBOD has secured $600 million long-term facility to revamp the cocoa sector out of which $223 million is being committed to intensive cocoa rehabilitation programme in the affected cocoa areas,” he said.
He continued that it was gratifying to learn that some of the farms treated two years ago, have started bearing, noting that it was important to bring to the fore the on-going rehabilitation programme expected to cover 156,400 hectares of CSSVD-affected cocoa farms country-wide within a period of four years from 2019 to 2024.
By Ernest Kofi Adu, Parliament House