Cocoa: Farmer-extension officer gap reduced

The suppleness with which the government through the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) is handling the cocoa sector has transformed the all-important Extension Service Division to the total benefit of cocoa farmers throughout the country.

To bring Extension Services closer to the cocoa farmers, the Ghana COCOBOD, in clear wisdom, has increased the operational district of the Cocoa Health and Extension Division (CHED), from 41 to 60 in 2014.

COCOBOD also increased, substantially, the number of extension staff at the districts by 35 percent, to ensure that the extension officer-farmer gap was reduced drastically.

Additionally, all district offices have been re-equipped with modern extension tools, to improve service delivery to the cocoa farmers.

CHED of COCOBOD has taken over a mobile telephony platform called COCOLINK, through which messages are sent farmers in English and local Ghanaian languages - which was initially receiving support from the World Cocoa Foundation.

Through that platform, cocoa farmers receive, on regular basis, technical, socio-economic and health related information on their phones.

The uniqueness about the platform is that, it allows farmers to provide feedback for the messages they receive; and this has revolutionarised the farmer-extension officer relationship.

There is also the farmer business school training programme in which farmers are trained in the basis of business skills to make them appreciate cocoa farming as not a way of life, but big business.

The programme has been expanded to all cocoa districts and has enabled business savvy farmers to organize themselves into groups, to enable them to enjoy services from the banks and other financial institutions.

To ensure that cocoa farmers receive only credible and timely technical and allied information, COCOBOD, working with its partners, have produced the “Cocoa Manual” as a Source book for training of the Extension Officers.

A Project Coordination Unit has also been established at CHED, to monitor and evaluate all interventions that deal with cocoa farmers and the farming communities, to also ensure that interventions actually benefit cocoa farmers.

With a highly-motivated staff of over 1,700, the COCOBOD, through CHED, is poised to support cocoa farmers in all aspects of their cocoa farming activities, to ensure higher productivity.

The government through COCOBOD has fixed pragmatic moves in place to add some 750,000 Metric ton to cocoa production in the nearest future.

Initiatives such as free supply of Hybrid Cocoa Seedlings, free supply of fertilizers, improved Mass Spraying Exercise, massive improvement in cocoa roads and Youth-In-Cocoa, put together by the COCOBOD are yielding positive results.