Gov't to introduce cocoa production reforms on Oct 4 - Oppong Nkrumah

He said the reform is aimed at boosting and promoting climate change efforts.

The initiative, which is dubbed, the Cocoa Forest REDD+Programme, is expected to enrich vegetation cover to help retain soil moisture and fertility leading to an increase in cocoa production without degrading the forests. 

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Kojo Oppong Nkrumah made this known during a news conference prior to a Town Hall meeting that took place on Monday, October 1 in Bolgatanga in the Upper East region. 

“Along with the interventions, farmers would be supplied with indigenous tree seedlings to plant on their farms and nurture. One significant part of this intervention is that farmers would also be supported to register the commercial trees or the farm tree on their plantations so that they can now have ownership and bargaining rights against timber merchants,’” he explained.

He reaffirmed that a combination of these reforms coupled with other investments in the cocoa sector by government would motivate farmers and ensure a sustained income effective cocoa production. 

Kojo Oppong Nkrumah used the occasion to encourage cocoa farmers across the country to take advantage of the initiative when its fully implemented.

The producer price of cocoa in Ghana has been increased by 8.42 percent, moving the price of a 62.5-kilogramme bag of the commodity from GHS475 to GHS515 for the 2019/2020 cocoa season.

Annual cocoa production is usually between 850,000 and 900,000 tonnes, though the country had an official forecast of 900,000 tonnes for the current 2018/19 season.