Over 200 cocoa farmers along Ghana's eastern frontier with Togo attended a one-day outreach programme to sensitise them on scientific techniques in the treatment of swollen shoot disease recently.
The programme was organized by the Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus Disease Control Unit (CSSVDCU) of the Cocoa Board.
Speaking to the participants, Mr. Attah Barfi Boateng, deputy Volta regional manager of the CSSVDCU, stressed that a holistic destruction of the disease by uprooting affected trees and subsequent replanting was the guarantee for the future and sustenance of the cocoa industry.
Mr. Boateng likened the viral disease to that of HIV/AIDS, saying it was highly infectious, with a long gestation period and in some cases leading to "stem elephantiasis," which also affects the roots. Unlike other cocoa diseases such as capsids and black pod, CSSVD could only be eradicated by uprooting the entire tree. He said by government policy, a hectare or 2.5 acres of an infected cocoa farm attracted treatment and replanting grants of GHC 408 ($435). He said the affected trees were usually replanted with high yielding and drought resistant hybrid seedlings with shorter maturity periods between two-and-half to three years, which could be inter cropped with plantain, cocoyam and maize.
Mr Osam-Dade Okwan, Volta Regional Quality Control Officer announced that the region lost 35 percent of the over 1,000 tons of cocoa produced in 2006 to poor fermentation procedures which resulted in "purple beans."
He advised cocoa farmers to stop smuggling the commodity into Togo, since such nefarious activities was enriching that country at the expense of Ghana.
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