Cocoa Politics

Kindly permit me your medium to respond to the gain claims NPP seeks to make about the cocoa industry in Ghana.If my memory serves me well, I do know that the 1983 bushfire that swept through Ghana, burnt nearly 45% of the cocoa farms. This was a contributory factor that made Ivory Coast to over take us as the world leading cocoa producer. It took the good policies of (P)NDC government, led by JJ Rawlings to encourage farmers to replant the burnt farms and with modern agronomic practices and techniques to raised the industry to where it is today.

The fact also remains that NPP brought out certain policy measures that aided the industry, but then, the eight years of NPP in power alone could not be solely responsible for the growth in the cocoa sub sector.If Fifi Kwetey mentioned that cocoa prodution has risen from 600,000 metric tones to 1,00,0000 metric tones in three years, it is a fact. However, all successive governments have done something to help the industry and it must be told.

Samuel Kofi Agbenyo.