COCOBOD making inroads in cocoa production

High cocoa prices and demand on the world market are encouraging officials of Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) to adopt modern agriculture methods to significantly increase production of the crop in the coming years.

Against that backdrop, spending on fertilisers and pesticides has substantially gone up to upturn crop yields to meet the growing demand.

Dr Stephen Opuni’s led COCOBOD has successfully distributed over 2.2 million bags of granular fertiliser and one million liters of liquid fertiliser to farmers free of charge to augment production levels.

Ghana produced a record one million tonnes of cocoa a couple of years back buoyed by good weather and improved farming techniques, but has seen output slip.

It is expected that the 2.2 million bags of granula fertiliser doled out to the farmers would be used on approximately 295,000 cocoa farms whiles the liquid fertilisers are also used on 4,000,000 hectares of cocoa farms across the country.

The fertiliser would be used on farms with plantation that are not over thirty years, officials have said.

Another enviable success chalked by COCOBOD in recent years is the halt of fertiliser sales by agents otherwise known as middle-men, who end up fleecing unsuspecting farmers.

Officials of COCOBOD now deal directly with farmers and offer relevant assistance and equipment to enhance their work.

“One of the remarkable successes by Dr Opuni is to ensure that farmers are not shortchanged by these so called agents. Stringent measures have also been rolled out to considerably reduce smuggling to neighbouring countries,” an official of COCOBOD disclosed.

Another area COCOBOD has heavily invested is the provision of cocoa seedlings to growers to increase their produce.

COCOBOD has so far developed over 100 nursery sites across the country to ensure the availability and proper distribution of hybrid seedlings to growers.

With 50 million seedlings distributed, officials are of the firm believed the country would be able to achieve its production target of 850,000 metric tonnes with ease this year.

COCOBOD had previously distributed just 20 million seedlings – a trend which adversely affected production targets over the years.

Authorities say plans are afoot to sharply increase seedling distribution from 50 to 60 million next year, as the country strives to enhance the sector.

The hybrid has the gestation period of 18 months and the demand for it is overwhelming that the Cocobod would increase the number to over 60 million, come next year.