BUDGET: Govt to Assist Cocoa Farmers to Increase Yield

Mr Yaw Osafo-Marfo, Finance Minister, on Friday said that, to sustain the cocoa industry, government intends to increase production yield per hectare by assisting farmers to rehabilitate and replant old, abandoned and destroyed farms.
The government will also improve the quality control system, input supplies and improve the internal and external marketing of cocoa through competition and equal access to the Ghana Cocoa Board' (COCOBOD) warehousing and crop financing facilities.
Mr Osafo-Marfo was delivering the first budget statement of the new government to Parliament in Accra.
He announced that an amount of 8.1 billion cedis has been earmarked by the government to rehabilitate selected roads on the primary routes for the evacuation of cocoa.
He also said government intends to raise the farmers' share of cocoa export prices to 65 per cent.
According to the minister, it has become necessary to compensate cocoa farmers for the loss in revenue following a review of the projection of key variables used in the determination of producer price and other rates for the 2000/2001 main crop season.
"With the payment of this compensation, the cocoa farmer's share of the f.o.b. price is restored to 67 per cent.
Consequently, government has decided to pay cocoa farmers a total of 80.38 billion cedis, which translates to an additional 12,406.25 per bag (198,500,00 per tonne) for all purchases made last season."
The Minister added that government will undertake a national mass spraying of all cocoa farms before the next main crop season to generate employment in the rural areas and improve the husbandry of cocoa farms.