GOVERNMENT HAS announced a new producer price for cocoa for the 2020/2021 farming season.
The new price was announced yesterday in Sunyani during the commemoration of the 2019 Cocoa Day celebration.
Farmers will now be paid GH¢515 for a bag of cocoa beans. Previously they received GH¢475.
The world market price of the produce still remains unchanged. Ghana is among the 22 cocoa producing countries in world.
On his part, Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD, Joseph Boahen Aidoo, said because cocoa was the backbone of the Ghanaian economy, government would continue to support cocoa farmers to produce more.
He said cocoa production in Ghana was at its lowest, with farmers reaping only three bags per acre when the New Patriotic Party (NPP) came to power. It has taken the hard work of government through initiatives such as hand pollination, pruning, fertilizer application, disease and pest control as well as rehabilitation of farms under the Productivity Enhancement Programme (PEPs) to bring the harvest of farmers to over 10 bags per acre.
Mr. Aidoo has, therefore, urged farmers to do away with the use of crude implements like machetes for pruning cocoa trees and resort to the use of motorised slashers. Since these would be distributed to farmers on cooperative bases, he has encouraged them to join farmer cooperatives so that they could benefit from the package.
To further improve on productivity of cocoa farmers, he said government was seriously fighting cocoa swollen shoot virus.
The government was going to do that by cutting and treating disease trees on affected farms through the rehabilitation programme.
danielyaodayee@yahoo.com
FROM Daniel Y Dayee, Sunyani
