The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) through the Cocoa Health and Extension Division (CHED) has presented a total 99,468 bags of Cocoa fertilizers to be distributed to 126 farmer cooperative groups within Wiawso and Akontombra districts of the Western North Region.
Mr John Ahi, Boako District Technical Officer, who confirmed the development to the Ghana News Agency, said the 126 farmer corporative groups were from the Wiawso and Akontombra districts with a maximum number of between 250 and 300 members in each group.
He said his outfit with the support of the farmer groups has prune all the selected farms to pave way for the application of the fertilizers.
He said the farmer cooperatives were used to ensure that the government-sponsored agrochemicals were fairly distributed to the rightful beneficiaries.
Mr Ahi advised beneficiary farmers to take experts advice from the technical officers and that the district has enough Technical Officers to attend to each farmer.
He asked them to desist from smuggling the fertilizers to other areas for sale, since the security agencies were on the alert to arrest any farmer who sells the fertilizers and the buyer as well.
The District Technical Officer appealed to farmers to regularly maintain their farms in order to get good yields since farm maintenance was key in cocoa production.
He urged Cocoa farmers within his operational areas to either join or form farmer cooperatives in order to benefit from the COCOBOD programme and policies.
The beneficiary cooperatives groups included Aseda Ben Association, Kuapa kokoo farmer’s union, Yesu Adom women in Cocoa Association, Royal Youth and Eka obi nko Cocoa farmer’s Association.
The others are Awurade beye Cocoa farmer’s Association, Golden Pod farmer’s Association and NSO Nyame ye Cocoa farmer’s Association among others.
Mr Kankam Amos, secretary for Anidaso cooperative Cocoa farmer’s group, commended the government and COCOBOD for bringing fertilizers to the doorsteps of cocoa farmers. He pledged that the fertilizer would be used appropriately.