The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has initiated moves aimed at attaining one million tonnes of cocoa production per year by 2010. National cocoa production in 2006 stood at 740,000 tonnes, the highest in the country's history.
The moves include intensification of extension activities and a free mass spraying exercise. Large quantities of fertilizers will be distributed to farmers to achieve higher yields and a disease-tolerant, hybrid cocoa which bears fruit in a maximum of two years will be introduced.
The news was disclosed by Emmanuel Ahia Clottey, a senior technical Officer at COCBOD. He said with the introduction of the fertilizer package, dubbed "hi-tech," a farmer was likely to harvest between 10 and 15 bags per acre (40 to 60 bags per hectare) instead of four to five bags per acre (16 to 20 bags per hectare) without fertilizer.
Clottey said the new hybrid cocoa was developed by the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG), adding that in combination with the application of fertilizers, it would help in attaining the target. He said having realized that the various cocoa diseases were part of the causes of low yields in the past, COCOBOD had also embarked on an exercise to uproot all diseased cocoa trees. Farmers were compensated for the removal of the trees and also would be assisted to replant with early-bearing, high-yielding and disease-tolerant varieties.
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