Develop a single approach for cocoa certification

Accra, Oct. 22, GNA - Mr. Fifi Kwetey, a Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, on Thursday called on players in the cocoa industry to develop effective measures for a single and harmonized approach to the cocoa certification requirements.

"It is the hope of government that all companies in the cocoa industry will consult adequately and come out with a single harmonized approach so as not to burden the producing countries with different certification requirement," he said.

Mr. Kwetey was speaking at the opening of the seventh Regional Executive Committee of the Sustainable Tree Crops Programme (STCP) meeting in Accra.

The STCP is an initiative aimed at introducing production, marketing and institutional innovation in the cocoa sector to improve the economic and social well being of tree crop farmers.

The project has the mandate to engage in public and private partnership within the cocoa belt countries in West Africa to identify the potential of cocoa in contributing to the rural transformation. About 50 representatives from countries including Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivore and Liberia are participating in the two-day workshop to review the STCP strategies for closing the yield gap between the farm and experimental stations.

The programme, organized by International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), a non-governmental organization, would also discuss and evaluate cocoa certification requirements, marketing system and it implication for industry.

Mr. Kwety said government was ready to help develop innovations to enable farmers have easy access to finance in its quest to boost cocoa production and to achieve the one million metric tonnes of cocoa target in 2012.

He said government would soon roll out the cocoa "Hi-Tech" program to assist and facilitate farmers' access to the use of fertilizer and agro-pesticides.

"We reckon that efforts such as this as well as the cocoa mass-spraying programme against mirids and black pod diseases in the medium term would play a catalytic role to boost cocoa production in the country", Mr Kwetey said.

Giving the overview of the project in Ghana, Mr Isaac K. Gyamfi, Country Manager of STCP, said the capacity building workshop organized by STCP on appropriate methods of cocoa production in 56 districts had helped to increase their cocoa yields to about 40 per cent.

He said the introduction of group sales, entrepreneurship training and quality control had also resulted in about 15 per cent higher farm-gate prices for farmers.

Mr. Gyamfi said STCP trained farmers through various methods including Video Viewing Clubs and research with active participation of farmers. He said the phase two of the project would build the capacity of farmers and personnel of the Extension Service of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture on community organization development, alternatives income opportunities for cocoa farmers, and policy initiatives for a sustainable cocoa economy contributing to rural transformation and growth.