About 22,900 cocoa farmers in cooperatives in the Amenfi West Municipality have received 1,627 units of agrochemicals to spray on their farms by themselves since the mass spraying team has gone on break.
The agrochemical inputs include 887 bottles of Akate Asa insecticide and 740 cartons of Lufu insecticide.
“COCOBOD and the government do not want pests invading farms as the mass spraying team is on break. Therefore, before the second round of spraying resumes next month, farmers will have to make use of the chemicals made available to them through their cooperatives,” the District Cocoa Officer, Mr Clement Sarpong, said when he presented the insecticides to the farmers at Asankrangwa last Friday.
Already, the Cocoa Marketing Board (COCOBOD) had presented 71,946 bags of granular fertilisers and 705 cartoons of Begreen liquid fertilisers to 11,450 farmers.
Cocoa farmers
In addition to that, Mr Sarpong said, a total of 2,400 pruning machines had been given to the cooperative farmers to prune their farms.
Moreover, he said, COCOBOD had provided enough fuel to power the motorised spraying machines supplied to aid the farmers exercise.
Explaining the rationale for the move, Mr Sarpong said it formed part of the government’s commitment to improve cocoa production in the Western Region.
He said the government would continue to support the country’s cocoa production levels and improve the lives of cocoa farmers across cocoa growing regions.
The Amenfi West District Cocoa Officer said the country produced about 812,000 tonnes of cocoa in the 2018/2019 crop season, which was a decrease from the near 969,000 tonnes produced in 2016/2017, hence the need for a conscious effort to work toward the million tonne mark.
A million tonnes
He said to ensure that farmers received the assistance meant for them, the interventions were channelled through farmer cooperatives which were better placed and recognised by the government and, also, easily accessible to the farmers.
“It is the collective responsibility of the supporting agencies and the farmers to push the country towards the achievement of the one million metric tonnes goal set by the COCOBOD.
“ The Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD and his team’s vision as well as that of the government is to give cocoa farmers a better life while also ensuring that produce from the cocoa farms are of premium quality,” he said.
Intended purpose
The Amenfi West Municipal Chief Executive, Mr George Agyiri, advised the farmers to adhere to best practices on their farms in order to reap immense benefits for themselves and the country in general.
He also urged them to make sure that the chemicals and the fertilisers given to them were used for their intended purpose of helping to boost their production of cocoa.
