The Ghana Cocoa Board( COCOBOD) has urged Cocoa farmers nationwide to embrace hand pollination as a key technique to boost cocoa yields and improve their earnings.
The Chief Executive Officer(CEO) of Ghana Cocoa Board( COCOBOD), Mr Joseph Boahen Aidoo has embarked on a four – day field trip to some cocoa farms in the Central and Western Regions to assess the work of extension officers and government’s intervention to farmers, while educating and sensitising them on best practices to increase cocoa yields.
The COCOBOD CEO also used the trip to launch the 2024 National Hand Pollination Programme in Nzema Ainyinasi in the Western Region.
This initiative is part of the COCOBOD’s broader strategy to ensure the production of high – quality cocoa beans in Ghana while ensuring that farmers maximise their income.
The hand pollination programme is aimed at educating and encouraging farmers to practice the transfer of pollen from a male flower to female flower of another cocoa tree, using hand,rather than allowing insects to do so.
Briefing the media after the field trip, Mr Joseph Boahen Aidoo emphasised that active hand pollination along with agronomic practices such as pruning and application of organic fertilisers such as poultry manure, can significantly increase cocoa yields.
” Now that prices are good on the international market, what’s needed is more yields to make farmers benefit. That is why we’ve deliberately come up with the hand pollination programme, so cocoa farmers should embrace it”, said Mr Joseph Boahen Aidoo.
He stated that the average yield of farmers stood at between 5 to 8 bags per acre, instead of the 20 to 30 bags per acre that had been evidenced in some farms especially Bompieso in the Western Region through hand pollination.
Mr Joseph Boahen Aidoo also encouraged farmers to view cocoa farming not a just as way life but as a serious business. He urged them to invest more efforts and resources into their farms to achieve better .
Some cocoa farmers at Bompieso in the Western Region shared their testimonies after practising hand pollination.
According to them, hand pollination has significantly increased their cocoa yields since the programme started in 2017.
Meanwhile, the farmers also called on COCOBOD to prioritise the construction of roads to cocoa growing communities and farms, many of which are in deplorable conditions.
They also appealed to the COCOBOD to assist them in securing financial support.
