Ashanti Region cocoa farmers sensitised to good farming practices

 The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of COCOBOD, Mr Joseph Boahen Aidoo, has engaged and sensitsed farmers in some selected cocoa growing communities in the Ashanti region on good practices and methods of cocoa farming to ensure increase in productivity.

The CEO visited farmers’ groups in the Antoakrom, Obuasi and Adansi Asokwa and other surrounding communities in the Obuasi Municipality and in the Adansi Akrofuom, Amansie West, and some districts in the Ashanti region.

Addressing the farmers at their respective community’s engage­ment, Mr Aidoo stated that the COCOBOD prioritised the con­cerns of cocoa farmers, hence the engagement.

He said the cocoa industry was the backbone of Ghana’s economy and COCOBOD would ensure that farmers were always supported and motivated to increase yield to con­tribute their quota to the economic growth of the country and to also take care of their families.

The COCOBOD CEO also sensitised the farmers on the type of soil that was good for growing cocoa and other soil types that were not good for good for cocoa production.

He advised them to desist from cultivating cocoa on sandy soil, gravel or clay soil.

Mr Aidoo also indicated that the best soil for cocoa production to give farmers the expected yields was loamy soil and that cassava should not be planted to compete with the nutrients in the soil within the farm meant for cocoa.

The COCOBOD CEO advised them to either grow pepper, okro or plantain that would not heavily compete with the cocoa for the nutrients in the soil, while the addition of timber and mahogany was also good to fetch the farmer an additional income.

He also entreated the cocoa farmers not to burn their farms but leave the grass and debris to decay so that it will add nutrients to the soil for the benefits of their cocoa seedlings.

The COCOBOD CEO further urged the farmers to cultivate only the size of farms they could take good care of to ensure and en­hance productivity of their farms.

Moreover, Mr Aidoo reminded the farmers to notify the extension officers before ploughing their farms so that they would be sup­plied with the right and high and early yielding seedlings.

He then entreated the farmers to desist from the use of weedicides application that had been banned for their destructions of the micro-organisms in the farms soil, and tasked the farmers to prioritise pruning to enhance sunlight and the penetration of air into the farm in order to enhance high yield.

 FROM KINGSLEY E. HOPE, OBUASI

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