BE VIGILANT TO AVERT ILLEGALITY IN FREE COCOA INPUTS SUPPLY-COCOBOD URGES BENEFICIARIES

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The Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Cocoa Board in charge of Operations, James Kofi Kutsoati has inaugurated the first of several Taskforces to implement and manage COCOBOD’s free cocoa production interventions for this year in the Ashanti region with a call on all stakeholders, particularly community members and cocoa farmers to exercise extra vigilance in the work of the Taskforce to avert any illegality in its work. 

Inaugurating the Asante Akyem District Taskforce at Konongo, Mr. Kutsoati disclosed that management of COCOBOD has enhanced the structure and composition of the Taskforce with the inclusion of personnel from the Ghana Police Service and Bureau of National Investigations as well as the National Disaster Management Organization, NADMO as part of security measures to prevent or detect any underhand dealings in the management and distribution of the free cocoa inputs. 

Additionally, the COCOBOD Officer responsible for the respective district will now head the Taskforce with the District Chief Executive given an over sight responsibility over the work of the Taskforce and distribution of the agro inputs. 

The Taskforce is employed to receive, distribute and secure all the cocoa production inputs provided by the COCOBOD to cocoa farmers for their production for the 2016 season. 

The inputs, which are to be distributed to the farmers at no cost include seedlings, the liquid and granular fertilizers as well as free spraying of the cocoa farms of the beneficiary farmers. 

The Deputy COCOBOD CEO warned that no room has been made for protocol in the management of the inputs. 

He therefore cautioned the Taskforce against party politics, nepotism and favouritism. 

The Executive Director of the Cocoa Health and Extension Division of COCOBOD, Dr. Francis Baah, said the inputs will be released to the various Taskforces very soon for the distribution and spraying. 

Dr. Baah explained to ensure fairness in the distribution, all interested cocoa farmers must first register with the Taskforce in person after which their holdings will be inspected and measured to determine the sizes and their respective production needs. Dr. Baah stressed that cocoa farms with trees aged 30 years and above do not qualify the intervention. 

Instead, owners of such old farms will benefit from free supply of hi-tech seedlings to replace their aging trees for improved yield.

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