Swollen shoot disease hit Eastern Region.

Akim Oda, Aug. 28, GNA - About 9,673,424 cocoa trees have been infected with the swollen shoot disease in the Eastern Region, Mr. Francis Antwi Agyei, Deputy Eastern Regional Manager of the Cocoa Swollen Shoot Control Division, announced on Thursday. speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency at Akim Oda, Mr Agyei said out of the figure, the Boadua District had recorded 283,824 affected trees.

He explained that even though Boadua was located in the Central Region, most of its farmlands were in the Eastern Region. It is also a boundary town between the two regions. Mr. Agyei stated that the Boadua farming community had proved difficult in allow his outreach team to control the virus, irrespective of compensation packages offered them. "Being a virus, the only control measure is by the total removal of the diseased and contact trees. This means the trees are to be cut down", he said.

According to him between November 2006 and August 2007, a total of 147,980 diseased trees had been removed from 214 farms in the region. Out of the figure, 23,809 diseased trees were removed from 18 farms in the Boadua district.

He was emphatic that cocoa abounds in the Brakwa area, and noted that almost all the diseased trees recorded from the Boadua district were from Brakwa farmlands. He explained that the name swollen shoot came about as a result of the swelling on the pod, the only symptom by which the disease was recognized.