Esiama District of PBC tops in cocoa buying season… Purchases 43,000 bags of cocoa

THE Esiama District Branch of the Produce Buying Company (PBC) came up tops in the total quantity of cocoa purchased for the cocoa buying season. It purchased a total of 11,000 bags of cocoa in the light crop season, and 32,000 bags in the main crop season.

This achievement was attributed to the introduction of the government cocoa Hitech programme, which involves the mass spraying of cocoa.

The District Chief Executive (DCE) for the Ellembelle Assembly, Mr. Saeed Abdul-Rahman Yankey, announced this on the occasion of the District Farmers Day celebration.

According to the DCE, under the cocoa Mass Spraying Exercise, 54 gang supervisors and 324 sprayers were deployed in this year's exercise, and a total of 34,350 hectares of cocoa farms were sprayed against capsid, and 8,000 hectares against the blackpod disease.

On the government subsidy for farmers, Mr. Saeed Yankey noted that a lot of farmers, who could hitherto not use fertiliser in their farms, were now using them.

This is because in the month of September, a total of 620 bags of fertilisers of various kinds were purchased by farmers under the programme.

The Asasetre-Adubrim and Asasetre-Ebi-Aiyinase roads are all being tarred under the government's cocoa roads programme.

On the awards, the DCE congratulated the gallant farmers who were awarded, for their contributions towards putting food on the table of Ghanaians.

19 farmers selected in the District were awarded for their achievements.