Cocoa farmers in the Huni Valley cocoa district of the Western Region have expressed support for the new government, and express the belief it would restore hope to one of Ghana’s key contributors to Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
They stated that government and Ghana Cocoa Board need to express “transparency, good governance and goodwill,” to assure players of their commitment to revive the cocoa industry, make it resilient and buoyant.
Further, the Huni Valley cocoa farmers demanded urgent attention to the cocoa value chain, which they noted, was faced with uncertainties, growth and wealth creation and welfare challenges, especially along the fringes of the country.
The District Chief Cocoa Farmer, Huni Valley Cocoa District, Nana Thomas Boakye, stated these in interview with the Ghanaian Times on a wide range of issues including dwindling fortunes, producer price, governance and policy, agronomy, road infrastructure and illegal mining.
“We expect the new government to restore hope and confidence in the cocoa economy and also improve production for wealth creation. We have suffered over the years and this should be a lesson to the new Mahama leadership and government. No roughshod with the industry,” he underlined.
Reacting to the proposed introduction of subsidized insurance programme for farmers, Nana Boakye said government should be guided by previous administration’s attempts and provide more details on such a package.
He stated that attempts to ‘dump’ the programme on farmers would be detrimental to the cocoa industry and the entire agriculture architecture.
He recalled that efforts by COCOBOD to introduce the cocoa farmers’ pension scheme suffered setbacks because the entire membership were not consulted.
Again, Nana Boakye said the implementation of the pension scheme suffered due to the deductions of five per cent on proceeds, digitally at the purchasing depots, which he described as a breach of faith.
He stressed that, “We need the details, and the government and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture must be transparent; the processes must be consultative. We have been cheated for long.”
Furthermore, he also argued that the producer price of cocoa which is GH¢3,100 per bag (64 kilos) needed to be reviewed, noting that the world price was presently GH¢9,000, “adding “we don’t want to hear their so-called percentage increase, to deceive us.”
The entire cocoa industry, Nana Boakye told the Ghanaian Times, needed to be “revolutionaries and modernized” with inputs to improve agronomy, production and post -harvest issues, especially reducing the drudgery, wastage to boost the economy and enhance wealth creation.
For example, he pointed out that, a new technology could be introduced to reduce the headache of breaking cocoa pods and also help in the drying of the cocoa beans on the farms.
Also, he said an improved cocoa dryer could be introduced to mechanize the processes in order to ensure that cocoa beans could be dried 24 hours no matter the weather, arguing, it would curb moldy conditions on the farm.