Aiding the poor cocoa farmer

From infrastructure to institutions and capacity building, it is cocoa that has made it possible for this society to stand on its own. Like many things great, the introduction of cocoa to this society was without fanfare.

When Tetteh Quarshie, then a young man, was sent by the then Basel Missionary in the Cold Coast to Fernando Po, now modern day Equatorial Guinea, he was fascinated by the crop that was making waves in the farming community, and brought some pods home and started cultivating the crop on the slopes of the Akwapim Hills at Mampong.

The experimental farm is now a tourist site. But the overall impact is that cocoa has grown to become this nation's leading export commodity. According to the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), this country is on course to producing one million tonnes for the first time since production began in the then Gold Coast, in the middle of the 19 th Century.

The idea of producing one million tonnes was first mooted by the COCOBOD under the able leadership of Mr. Isaac Osei, now Member of Parliament for Subin, when he was Chief Executive of COCOBOD.

The cocoa conglomerate received tremendous support from the Kufuor administration, which introduced the mass spraying free of charge to the cocoa farmer, in addition to the supply of fertilisers and other inputs.

When the Kufuor administration took charge of this country, cocoa production had slumped to just above 300,000 tonnes a year. Thanks to various interventionist policies by the government, the dying cocoa industry has become buoyant again.

At the weekend, President John Evans Atta Mills joined the farmers and workers of COCOBOD to celebrate this year's International Cocoa Day at Effiduase in the Ashanti Region, and promised that his government would invest more in the cocoa industry.

The Chronicle hopes this is one promise that this administration would keep. The President and his administration have promised and delivered so little that it is difficult to believe in their promises.

In spite of the discovery of oil, what is still driving this economy is the sweat of the cocoa farmer. That is why, it is necessary for this society to appreciate the immense contributions farmers have made towards nation-building.

Sometime ago, this society tinkered with the idea of providing social security for our farmers, so that in their old age, they could also enjoy a pension scheme. What happened to that noble scheme? The Chronicle is asking the Ghana COCOBOD to re-visit the scheme, and work out modalities for our hard-working farmers to be rewarded in their times of need.

When the Nkrumah regime introduced the idea of a scholarship scheme for children and wards of cocoa farmers in the second cycle school, it was thought through as a means of rewarding our hard working cocoa farmers.

Invariably, the system was and is still being abused. Top state officials have contrived to use the system for themselves, while children of cocoa farmers are left on their own.

The Chronicle would like to believe that the state would re-visit the scholarship scheme, and ensure that only children and wards of cocoa farmers benefit from the scheme.

There have been so many promises on the cocoa front without any visible evidence of fulfillment. That is why we are not so enthused about the promise by President Mills to invest in the industry.

All the same, The Chronicle is taking the President on his word. We are inviting the President to interest himself with the problems our famers face, and encourage them with words and in deed to improve on their quality of life and production techniques.