COCOBOD fulfils government's pledge

The government of Ghana's pledge to pay bonuses twice a year to cocoa farmers came to fruition when the management of Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) released twenty-three million, five hundred and seventy-eight thousand, sixty-one Ghana cedis, eighteen pesewas (GHc23,578,061.18) to Licensed Buying Companies (LBCs) to pay cocoa farmers the second tranche for the 2009/2010 crop season.

This development follows the announcement that "the 2010/2011 cocoa season which is on-going attained an unprecedented level of 1,004,194 metric tonnes on 18th August, 2011, representing the 10th week of the Light Crop Season." The COCOBOD did assure Ghanaians earlier this year that the target of 1million metric tonnes production of cocoa this year is achievable, and indeed they have exceeded it.

As a nation these are occasions that call for national discussions to ascertain how the COCOBOD managed to achieve this feat and to replicate such performances in other sectors of the economy.

Unfortunately, this achievement seems to have been over-looked by some media and social commentators. The media prefers frivilous and sensational, albeit, vexacious issues to be discussed on various platforms at the expense of topical and developmental issues.

Another cocoa related story that went unnoticed in the past few weeks was the commendation of government by the 2010 best cocoa farmer, Mr Samuel Awuni, for increasing cocoa producer price to GHc150 in 2009 and to GHc200 in 2010 up on previous year. This is very significant, especially as this development will go far to motivate the average cocoa farmer and also encourage the youth to go into cocoa farming.

Clearly, a bonus of GHc40 per tonne, thus sixteen bags of cocoa, does not mean the world to the cocoa farmer, it is however a vast improvement in the incentive package for cocoa farmers.

The government through COCOBOD has come up with pragmatic steps to ensure that Ghana remains a leading cocoa producing country in the world with the highest quality cocoa beans that all processing companies desire to buy. Indeed Peru and la cote d'ivoire will soon be trailing Ghana in terms of quality and quantity cocoa production.

The liberalisation of the internal market of cocoa has greatly helped the sector to reach the milestone of more than 1million metric toones.

According to a statement signed by the Chief Executive of the Cocobod, Mr Anthony Fofie, the record production this year "has been as a result of the collective effort by government, farmers, COCOBOD, Licensed Buying Companies (LBCs) and other stakeholders in the industry through adherence to good agronomic practices, payment of remunerative producer price, application of fertilizers, disease and pest control, use of hybrid cocoa seedlings and scientific research,"

He has also attributed the high level of production to the "hardworking cocoa farmers, LBCs, Hauliers, chemical and processing companies, the national anti-smuggling taskforce and all stakeholders in the cocoa industry." What it does indicate is that, with a well coordinated effort, the industry can only increase the contribution of cocoa to Ghana's GDP.

The journey is not over yet and therefore the call by Mr Fofie for deligence and hardwork is in the right direction. The cocoa farmer whose toil we are all celebrating must not be forgotten in the scheme of trying to increase the influence of Ghana's cocoa on the international market. As a Nigerian proverb states: "however far a river flows, it remembers its source."

The source is that little cocoa farm in a tiny rural community manned by an honest and hardworking individual who has sacrificed to make the whole enterprise of cocoa production a national success. And these are the successes that must set the agenda for our national discourse, devoid of the vicious politics threatening our very existence.

Source: Sandow Seidu Kpebu/GFM Radio, London