Swollen shoot disease on the increase at Nkawie District

Ahwaa (Ash), April 28, GNA - The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has tasked its Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus Disease (CSSVD) Control Unit to demolish about 200,000 cocoa trees in the Nkawie District. This followed the infestation of the swollen shoot disease on cocoa plantations in the area.

The demolition exercise, which would commence in May, this year, forms part of measures to bring the disease under control so as to improve cocoa production and better yield among farmers in the area. Mr Samuel Gyimah-Gyamfi, Ashanti Regional Deputy Manager of the Unit, disclosed this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) after the management committee of the Unit undertook a field trip to some of the affected plantations at Ahwaa, near Mankranso in the Ahafo-Ano South District of Ashanti on Thursday. He said the exercise would be sponsored by the government in collaboration with the European Union (EU), stressing that, affected farmers would be duly compensated and also given improved planting materials for re-planting.

Mr Gyimah-Gyamfi said lack of funds for his office to control the disease had caused its spread.

The deadly swollen shoot disease, which is caused by the swollen shoot virus, was detected in the country in the 1930s and had succeeded in devastating substantial amount of cocoa plantations over the years. Mr Gyimah-Gyamfi called on affected farmers to strive to co-operate with the Unit, when the exercise began, so as to boost their yield, adding, "We would not take kindly to farmers, who for one reason or the other refused to co-operate with us or opposed us in the discharge of our duties".

Meanwhile, Mr Ken Brew, Executive Director of the CSSVD Control Unit, had given the assurance that his outfit was putting in place proactive measures to improve upon cocoa production and productivity among farmers in the country. Speaking at a durbar of the chiefs and people of Ahwaa, the Executive Director, therefore, cautioned farmers not to hesitate to report symptoms of the swollen shoot disease on their plantations to the Unit, when they identified them.

He reiterated that the Unit was stepping up efforts to intensify and sustain the demolition of affected cocoa trees in the area with the view to stop the disease from spreading to other catchment areas. Nana Kwabena Sarfo, Chief of Ahwaa, expressed dissatisfaction at the indiscriminate manner with which some farmers gave a free range to their livestock, a situation which, he said, had contributed to the destruction of cocoa seedlings and other cash crops in the area. He consequently charged the farmers to desist from the practice to avoid confrontations among themselves.