Cocoa farmers educated on swollen shoot virus

Dome (E/R), June 18, GNA - Nana Appiah Bediako, Krontihene of Dome near Kuano in the Suhum Municipality, has called on his fellow traditional authorities to help educate cocoa farmers, to allow cocoa trees infested by swollen shoot to be cut down and replanted.

The Krontihene stated that the affected farmers would be adequately compensated by the government.

Nana Appiah Bediako, a cocoa farmer in the area, was speaking in an interview at Dome in the Eastern Region, on the Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus Disease (CSSVD) with Ghana News Agency.

He expressed the need for government to help rehabilitate cocoa farms, bring CSSVD under control, improve upon the sale and application of fertilizer and check child labour on cocoa farms.

Nana Appiah Bediako said if CSSVD infected trees are not cut down, the disease could infest other farms, which would reduce the national yield of the cash crop.

The Krontihene warned that poor fermentation and drying of cocoa beans is negatively affecting the quality of the country's cocoa on the world market, and : 'If the trend is not changed, Ghana's cocoa beans would lose its value on the world market.'

GNA