Govt commits to supporting cocoa farmers - DCE

The District Chief Executive(DCE) for Wassa-East, Mr Wilson Arthur has pledged government's readiness to supply farm inputs to cocoa farmers in the District to improve their livelihoods.

According to him, cocoa farmers contribute immensely to the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP), hence the need to resource them to be able to contribute their quota to national development.

Mr. Wilson Arthur was speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Daboase in the Western Region.

He said the Assembly had undertaken interventions to boost Cocoa production such as the creation of 30 additional voluntary mass spraying gangs to supplement that of the Ghana Cocoa Board.

Also, the repair of over 500 broken down motorised spraying machines District-wide free of charge.

Mr. Arthur said the Assembly had made efforts to raise the quantity of Hitech cocoa seedlings supplied to cocoa farmers from 200,000 to 1.5 million over three years.

The NPP Parliamentary candidate reiterated the government's intention to institute a pension scheme for cocoa farmers in their advanced ages to improve their livelihoods.