Ghana, Ivory Coast Secure $600M To Rehabilitate Cocoa Farms

Ghana and Ivory Coast are to embark on rehabilitation of cocoa farms by cutting down over-aged tree stocks and trees infected with diseases like the swollen shoot.

This comes after the two countries secured some USD600 million from the African Development Bank to allow them cut down over 680,000 hectors of cocoa and replant new trees.

In Ghana alone about, 40 percent of cocoa farms are either infected with the swollen shoot disease or the cocoa trees are over-aged.

The amount, which is expected in the coming months, is to allow the two leading cocoa producing countries to undertake the rehabilitation project which is expected to see an increase in production in the near future.

But even before these funds come in, Ghana COCOBOD has committed to invest its own funds into destroying 10,000 hectors of cocoa farms.

Speaking to Joy business on the side-lines of the 2018 cocoa managers conference at the Bunso Cocoa College, the Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD, Joseph Boahen Aidoo said the rehabilitation has become necessary to prevent the swollen shoot disease from spreading. It is also to clear over aged trees if the two countries are to increase production while Ghana produces even more premium beans for the world market.

“The rehabilitation has to do with cutting down old cocoa tree stock and diseased trees. Currently, in Ghana, about 40 percent of our tree stock has been affected. And all the areas that are affected come up to about 680,000 hectors of farmlands,” Mr Aidoo said.

“We were looking for money from the African Development Bank which has been approved but we were doing that with Ivory Coast, our neighbours. We believe that this project will help us in the future as we will be able to bring under control the spread of the disease and replant over aged trees as well,” he added.

Joseph Boahen Aidoo, CEO, COCOBOD

Mr Aidoo disclosed that farmers are now undergoing sensitisation programmes to educate cocoa farmers to ensure the success of the exercise when it finally set off later this month.

According to him, the exercise, code-named, “Rehabilitation of diseased and overage cocoa trees,” would start from the Eastern and parts of the Western regions where the infection “is very great,” while the other regions would join the exercise later.

Meanwhile, the COCOBOD boss praised Olam Ghana, a cocoa buying company for processing cocoa in Ghana but was quick to urge the company to go beyond primary and secondary processing and venture into tertiary processing by producing chocolate in Ghana.

He therefore tasked employees of Olam to lead the campaign for the consumption of cocoa locally pointing out that persons who work within the industry, should consume and encourage others to also join in the consumption of cocoa and its related products.

“Consuming cocoa has a lot of health and nutritional benefits and people who work within the industry like us must lead the campaign to get more Ghanaians to consume the produce which will go a long way to improve the cocoa industry,” he noted.

Mr Aidoo also asked the mangers to deal fairly with the cocoa farmers, who are said to be the weakest in the value chain, if they were interest in ensuring sustainability of the industry as that would guarantee the future of the industry.

He added that if the farmer ceased to cultivate cocoa that would be the end of the business of all stakeholders in the value-chain.

He disclosed that, government on its part was doing it all could to secure the future of the industry through key interventions, including the rehabilitation of diseased and over-aged trees and the introduction of hand pollination to boost yield while it goes into programmes to attract the youth into cocoa farming and called for stakeholders support to ensure success of the measures.