The benefits of your interventions have begun to show - Otumfuo to COCOBOD CEO

The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II has stated that the interventions initiated by the Chief Executive of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Hon. Joseph Boahen Aidoo and his management team have started to yield the intended result of improving the cocoa farming business for all involved.

It is, as such very important, Otumfuo added that the management of COCOBOD is given more support by all stakeholders to ensure that they are able to continue their work until the full realization of the impact and benefits of the interventions.

He noted that interventions such as pruning, hand pollination, and cocoa rehabilitation have proven to be critical to the effort to revamp the cocoa industry which in some years back had encountered some challenges.

The Asante King made these statements when the COCOBOD Chief Executive and his management team called on him at the Manhyia Palace to inform him of the visit by the COCOBOD entourage to the region, and of the event to launch the dual-purpose motorized slashers and pruners for cocoa farming.

Otumfuo Osei Tutu II further acknowledged that cocoa is the backbone of the cocoa industry and the source income for many farmers. Its importance to the country cannot be matched by any other industry in Ghana. The Asantehene, therefore, charged the Chief Executive and his team to ensure that they make the best of every opportunity to improve the livelihoods of all those who depend on the industry, particularly, the farmers.

He then advised the management to cooperate with the Chief Executive who he described as a humble and knowledgeable statesman, who is poised to achieve the targets which have been set for the industry.

Hon. Joseph Boahen Aidoo, in turn, took the opportunity to brief the Asantehene on activities and interventions of COCOBOD which includes, hand pollination, mass pruning, formation of cooperatives and the cocoa rehabilitation programme, among others.

He touched on the singular importance of the achievement of the Living Income Differential (LID), as part of the new trading mechanism for Ghana’s cocoa, for the long term sustainability of the cocoa industry and more importantly, as a means to improve the earnings of cocoa farmers, their living standards and that of their families and communities at large.

COCOBOD will on Tuesday 10th March 2010, launch the much anticipated dual-purposed Sharp Power 4T Motorised pruners and slashers for use on cocoa farms. These easy-to-use pieces of farming equipment are crucial for the substantial reduction of the drudgery and discomfort associated with cocoa farming and also encourage the youth to join the farming business.

After the launch, the process of an equitable distribution of the equipment, for use on cocoa farms, then commences.