COCOBOD sensitises farmers on best farming practices in Tepa

Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has held a sensitization workshop for cocoa farmers at Tepa in the Ahafo Ano North district in the Ashanti region aimed at conscientising the farmers the need to improve the yields of cocoa and income by applying the approved farming practices.

It also created a platform for COCOBOD to receive complaints and challenges from the farmers and possible solutions were offered.

The workshop brought together all cocoa farmers in the cocoa-growing areas in Ghana and was held on Monday, October 23, 2023.

It was chaired by the Paramount Chief of Tepa Traditional Area, Nana Adusei Atwenewa Ampem II.

Agric Extension Officers and the management of COCOBD prior to the workshop visited some cocoa farms in and around Tepa with the farmers, to get familiar with their challenges.

The farmers were taken through the methods of pruning, pollination, timely weeding, and timely application of fertilizer and chemicals.

The Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD, Joseph Boahen Aidoo, addressing the farmers advised them to accept and adopt the modern agronomic practices for increased yields and incomes.

He acknowledged the importance of the workshop, saying, that visiting the farms offered them the chance to educate them on adaptation of pollination, pruning, and the avoidance of unapproved agrochemicals that have the tendency of destroying their cocoa trees.

“This workshop has motivated and encouraged the farmers on the possible ways of increased yields and incomes if the approved agric practices are adopted,” Mr Boahen Aidoo.

“It has also created a perfect platform for the farmers to tell us their challenges with some farm inputs and COCOBOD policies, and I am glad that some solutions have been offered to address some of the challenges in sustainable cocoa production,” he added.

In his speech, the Paramount Chief of Tepa Traditional Area, Nana Adusei Atwenewa Ampem II, entreated the management of COCOBOD to continually organize such workshops to enlighten cocoa farmers to enhance productivity.

Nana Adusei Atwenewa Ampem II urged the government to financially support the youth who are willing to go into cocoa farming to replace the aging cocoa farmers, in a way of sustaining the cocoa industry.