Cocoa farmers complained about spraying gangs

Mukyia (E/R), Feb. 12, GNA - Cocoa farmers at Mukyia, Otabil and Adudjan in the Birim North District have expressed concern about the lackadaisical manner in which cocoa spraying gangs were going about their work in the area.

They complained that instead of the gangs spraying cocoa farms twice in a year, they only undertook the exercise once, a situation which they said had adverse effects on cocoa yields.

At a news conference held at Mukyia on Saturday, Mr Kwadwo Tieku a spokesman for the farmers said even when they preferred to buy their own DDT and insecticide to have their farms sprayed, the gangs refused to do the exercise unless they were prepared to pay bribes of not less than 20,000 cedis each.

He alleged that on most occasions, spraying on the farms was done in such hurried manner that some of the DDT and insecticides were left over for the spraying gangs to share among themselves. Mr Tieku commended the government on the introduction of the mass cocoa spraying exercise and appealed to the District Assembly to monitor the activities of the spraying gangs in order not to undermine the exercise.