Farmers asked to expose malpractices in mass cocoa spraying

Amakye-Bare (Ash), Sept 11, GNA - Mr Thomas Ofori-Donkor, Chairman of the Nwabiagya District Assembly's sub-committee on agriculture, has asked farmers to boldly expose fraudulent deals likely to endanger the smooth implementation of the mass cocoa spraying exercise. He said: "you should have no illusion about the fact that it is in your own interest to ensure that this important intervention by the government to revamp the cocoa industry is not allowed to be undermined by any unscrupulous people".

Mr Ofori-Donkor was addressing a joint meeting held with farmers and members of the spraying gangs at Amakye-Bare on Saturday. It was aimed at discussing ways of achieving maximum coverage in this year's mass spraying of farms.

Mr Ofori-Donkor said cocoa farmers in the country had every reason to be grateful to the Kufuor administration for making them better off. He said apart from the fact that cocoa farmers were making bumper harvest as a result of the mass spraying exercise and the introduction of the hi-tech fertilizers, they were enjoying tremendous returns due to high producer price paid by the government.

Mr Ofori-Donkor advised farmers who had benefited from the credit sale of the hi-tech fertilizers to repay the money on time so that the facility to be extended to others farmers.

He also asked supervisors of the spraying gangs to make proper documentation on chemicals and other inputs supplied to them to ensure transparency and accountability.