Cocoa farmers in Ashanti have expressed concern about the inadequate supply of improved and high yielding pods by the Cocoa Breeding Centres for planting and said this was inhibiting their efforts at raising production.
Ashanti, which is the second largest cocoa producing region in the country with an estimated 80,000 cocoa farmers, ironically is ranked the lowest in terms of per hectare yield of the crop.
Nana Kwame Amankwatia, Ashanti Regional Chairman of the Ghana, cocoa, Coffee and Sheanut Farmers Association (GCCSFA), put the region's per hectare average yield at 256 kilogrammes as against the national average of 400 kilogrammes per hectare.
He made this known at a forum held in Kumasi by District Cocoa Chief Farmers in the region to discuss and identify ways of maximising production.
Nana Amankwatia noted that the region was blessed with land that was best suited for cocoa production and said given adequate supply of improved planting materials and the adoption of the recommended technology, there was no way farmers could not tremendously increase their output.
Another area of concern to the farmers, he said, was the bad nature of some feeder roads leading to cocoa growing communities.
He therefore, appealed to the government to sustain its feeder roads maintenance programme to ensure that farmers have easier access to cocoa buying centres.
Meanwhile, the Ashanti GCCSFA has established a welfare scheme to help cater for the needs of its members in times of destruction of their farms and other property through disasters, hospitalisation and bereavement.
The farmers contribute 120,000 cedis annually towards the operation of the scheme.
