Seed Production Unit to train 7,200 cocoa farmers

Fumso-Adansi, Oct 19, GNA - The Seed Production Unit (SPU) of Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has lined up series of training programmes for farmers to enable the country achieve its target of 1,000,000 tonnes of cocoa production for 2012.

In all, 7,200 farmers from six cocoa regions are to benefit from the training with 36 farmers participating in each of the 20 training sessions to be held at the 10 selected cocoa stations.

Mr A. A. Baba, the Deputy Technical Manager of SPU, said this at a training workshop, organized for 40 farmers at Fumso in the Adansi North District of the Ashanti Region.

The workshop, organized by the SPU, aimed at improving the yield of farmers to sustain their interest in the cocoa production.

Some of the topics treated included: Pests and Disease Control, Farm Sanitation, Land Preparation and Farm Establishment.

`He said research and recommendations so far made would be demonstrated to the farmers with the view to enhancing their farming methods.

The Deputy Technical Manager said the extent of the successes to be derived from the training programmes would inform the SPU to bring on board farmers in the other 16 cocoa stations.

Mr A. A. Budu, the Principal Technical Officer in-charge of Fumso Cocoa Station, expressed satisfaction with the level of enthusiasm exhibited by the participants.

Mr Budu stressed the need for them to adhere to the new and modern farming methods of their Extension Officers to help increase cocoa production.