Cocoa farming activities pick up in B/A – Manager

Cocoa farming is picking up in the Brong-Ahafo Region, Mr Francis Antwi Adjei, the Regional Manager for Cocoa Health and Extension Division of the Ghana Cocoa Board (Cocobod) has stated.

He attributed the situation to incentive packages like free distribution of seedlings and fertilizers by the government, coupled with the free cocoa disease and pest control programme (CODAPEC) and extension services being provided to farmers.

Mr Adjei said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency after a regional farmers’ education and sensitization rally organised by his outfit at Nkrankwanta, in the Dormaa West District of the Brong-Ahafo Region.

About 1,000 cocoa farmers from cocoa growing districts in the region attended the rally.

He said the Brong-Ahafo Region was regaining its position as one of the nation’s highest cocoa growing areas because most indigenous farmers, who migrated to engage in cocoa farming at Sefwi in the Western Region after the 1983 national bush fire disaster were back to establish new cocoa farms.

Mr Adjei said such farmers shuttled between Western Region and Brong-Ahafo during the harvesting season, saying that, after payments for their harvests, they then return to continue working on their new farms.

He said as a result, the Cocobod had, besides the five cocoa districts of Bechem, Dormaa, Berekum, Goaso and Sankore, created three more districts, comprising Sunyani, Nkrankwanta and Dadiesoaba in the Asutifi South District.