Cocoa farmers sensitized on COCOBOD’s flagship programme at Nkonya Wurupong

Cocoa farmers in Nkonya in the Hohoe-Kpeve District of the Volta Region have on 21st January 2022 been sensitised on COCOBOD’s flagship programme, the Cocoa Management System (CMS) at Nkonya Wurupong, which is scheduled to commence on 5th February 2022 in the Hohoe-Kpeve District.

This forms part of several other sensitization programmes on CMS in all operational areas of the District.

In his welcome address, Mr. Oliver Aglubi, Chairman of Nkonya Wurupong Yonkodor Cooperative Cocoa Farming and Marketing Society Ltd stated, “I am happy to welcome cocoa farmers across Nkonya for making time to come for this programme.”

He appealed to farmers who have not yet joined the Cocoa Farmer Cooperative to do so, to also benefit from the benefits COCOBOD provides for the cooperatives as well as use the cooperatives to expand their farms through the various initiatives.

In his detailed address, the Technical Officer in Charge of Nkonya area, Francis Eshun opined that, “since 1947, there has never been a web-based trading portal that networks all stakeholders in the cocoa industry on a unified national platform for cocoa marketing, sales and payment, and that is what the Cocoa Management System (CMS) seeks to do”.

He added that the CMS is a technology that will link the cocoa farmer to his farm, captured through farm mapping and enumeration to produce Cocoa Card to every cocoa farmer, and such be used to build database that will be the only tool for all transactions by cocoa farmers in Ghana.

Mr. Eshun added that the CMS will have enormous benefits to COCOBOD and all its subsidiaries, the License Buying Companies (LBCs) and Purchasing Clerks (PCs), the Banks, the Telecommunication Companies and most especially the noble cocoa farmers.

The CMS will provide benefits such as; serving as the only trading platform for cocoa farmers, help farmers access subsidized inputs, eliminate weighing scale adjustments by PCs, access to loans from banks for farmers, COCOBOD ownership of the system, real time monitoring and access to vital information for decision making as well as helping in the implementation of cocoa farmer pension scheme.

The Technical Officer further added that beginning from 05/01/2022, the team will be in Hohoe-Kpeve District to start the farm mapping. He assured farmers the CMS is free and for all cocoa farmers to enroll when the team arrives in Nkonya Area in the coming month.

Evangelist Emmanuel Ahenkorah of the Nkonya Society of Methodist Church Ghana, who was at the programme also used the opportunity to inform the farmers of the plan of Methodist Church Ghana to establish and operate fully in Nkonya and Oti Region.

He thanked the Cooperatives for honouring the invitation during the commissioning of the Nkonya Methodist Church a couple of weeks ago by the Presiding Bishop of the Church, Most Rev Paul K. Boafo.

Over one hundred and fifty farmers who turned up for the programme were drawn from Nkonya Asakyiri Cooperative Cocoa Farming and Marketing Society Ltd, Nkonya Ahenkro Ebaale Cooperative Cocoa Farming and Marketing Society Ltd, Nkonya Tayi Cooperative Cocoa Farming and Marketing Society Ltd, Nkonya Tayi Cooperative Cocoa Farming and Marketing Society Ltd as well as the host, Nkonya Wurupong Yonkodor Cooperative Cocoa Farming and Marketing Society Ltd.