Report COCOBOD officers who extort monies - Farmers told

The Ghana Cocoa Board (Cocobod) has urged cocoa farmers to report any technical officer of who tried to collect money from them before undertaking any official assignment to the management at the regional offices of Cocobod.

Mr Francis Antwi-Adjei, the Senior Technical Officer of the Cocoa Health and Extension Division (CHED) of Cocobod, made the remark at a farmers’ rally at Diaso in the Upper Denkyira West District of the Central Region.

He said it was the official responsibility that Cocobod officers, with the support of members of the taskforce, took delivery of all fertilizers and chemicals and also ensured its equitable distribution to cocoa farmers free of charge.

They are also to measure the cocoa farms of registered farmers free of charge to determine the required number of seedlings for each farm.

Mr Antwi-Adjei said efforts were being made by management of Cocobod to ensure the sustainability of the cocoa industry by securing a 1.7-billion-dollar loan from the syndicated loan for the purchase of cocoa seedlings and other farming inputs for the 2015/2016 cocoa season.

He informed the farmers that his outfit had 4,000 bags of cocoa seedlings available for distribution to the five nursing points at Asesenso, Ntom, Dominase, Nkronua and Asaaman in the Upper Denkyira West District.

Mr Francis Antwi-Adjei, therefore, urged farmers who were yet to receive their seedlings to register at the regional office in Dunkwa to enable the technical officers to take measurement of their farms.

He said Cocobod was drilling bore-holes with the support of the Government in communities like Madasu in Upper Denkyira West to support cocoa farmers.

The rehabilitation of cocoa roads in Ntom, a community in Upper Denkyira West, was also ongoing, he said.

Mr Antwi-Adjei assured spraying- gangs that the Government was making efforts to replace all malfunctioning spraying machines before the peak of the cocoa season in August this year.

Mr Ambrose Amoah Ashyia, the District Chief Executive for Upper Denkyira West, advised Cocobod officials to desist from vilifying political opponents during the distribution of fertilisers and chemicals to the farmers.

He said the exercise was a national one meant for all cocoa farmers without any political connotations and urged the farmers to work hard to complement government’s efforts to sustain the cocoa industry.