Government urged to encourage the planting of cocoa and teak tress in Sawsaw forest reserve

Nana Appiah Zakaria, Chief of Atia near Nsuta in Techiman Municipality in the Brong Ahafo, has appealed to government to allow farmers in the area to plant cocoa in addition to teak in the Sawsaw forest reserve.

He said the cultivation of cocoa would enable farmers to derive maximum returns in the form of cash to support their teak plantations.

Nana Appiah Zakaria, who made the appeal through the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Atia said “whilst teak takes 20 years to mature, cocoa takes only three to four years to mature and can, therefore, provide money for farmers in the short and medium term as they wait to harvest the teak”.

The Chief said he had planted teak in cocoa plantation and found it profitable and asked officials of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and Ministry of Lands, Forestry and Mines to assess the viability of his proposal.

He said farmers could not wait for 20 years before earning income from harvested teak.