VR EXCELS IN QUALITY COCOA PRODUCTION (PAGE 26)

Story: Tim Dzamboe, Ho

THE Volta Region excelled in the production of high quality cocoa beans in the country following a laboratory analysis conducted at Tema.
Production levels, however, continue to fall sharply in the region due to alleged smuggling and the destruction of crops due to bush fires.
The regional managers of the Quality Control Division and Produce Buying Company disclosed this in separate lectures delivered at a cocoa farmers’ educational rally held at Peki-Avetile in the South District last Thursday.
According to the Regional Manager for PBC, Mr Prosper Zegbla, cocoa production fell from 30,000 bags in 2000 to 11,000 bags last year.
He attributed the decline to smuggling of the produce to neighbouring Togo.
Mr Zegbla said investigations had revealed that output of cocoa in Togo increased by 50 per cent last year because of smuggling from Ghana.
He noted with concern that even some farmers, who benefited from the mass cocoa spraying exercise, failed to sell their produce to the PBC.
He advised farmers to sell their produce to the nation in order to benefit from several incentive packages, such as scholarships for their wards, housing projects and solar street lighting for communities.
Mr Zegbla disclosed that a third seed garden was to be established at Saviefe in the Ho Municipality in addition to the existing ones at Ampeyo in the Kadjebi District and Akaa in the Jasikan District, to supply hybrid seeds to farmers.
He said the demand for Ghana’s cocoa was increasing hence the need for the youth to embrace cocoa farming in order to meet the high demand, adding that the COCOBOD was ready to help farmers replant their burnt cocoa farms.
For his part, the Regional Manager of the Quality Control Division, Mr Osam-Dade Okwan, urged farmers to adopt good fermentation and drying practices to avoid the production of purple beans.
He advised them to ferment their beans for six days and also dry them with only solar power and not with fire.
Mr Okwan said smuggling often compelled farmers to sell their beans and thus violated the desired period for fermentation.
He also cautioned against the overuse of agrochemicals since it affected the beans and also the health of farmers, adding that wrong use of insecticides might eventually cause the death of a person.
In an address read on her behalf, the South Dayi District Chief Executive, Mrs Woyram Boachie-Danquah, said the district assembly was ready to partner with any agency, both government and non-governmental, to move the district forward.
She said traditional agriculture could no longer sustain the growing population and that there was the need to adopt modern ways of farming with the use of agrochemicals.
Mrs Boachie-Danquah, however, said care must be exercised in the use of such chemicals in view of adverse effects on human health.