Breman Jukwa, (C/R), June 3, GNA - The government would not turn against the maintenance and production of high quality cocoa, despite the discovery of oil in Ghana.

Mr Samuel Ankomah, Central Regional Cocoa Extension Officer, made this known at separate meetings with cocoa farmers at Breman Jukwa, Twifo Hemang Lower Denkyiran, Asikuma-Odoben Brakwa Districts and Lower Bobikuma in the Agona West Municipality, as part of his tour of the Region to educate farmers about the maintenance of their cocoa.

He said adequate measures had been put in place by the government to ensure sustenance of cocoa production which is the back bone of the nation's economy.

He cited the rehabilitation of infested cocoa farms, supplying of fertilizers to farmers, mass spraying exercise and payment of compensations to farmers whose farms were affected by swollen shoot virus as some of the measures.

"Cocoa is Ghana and Ghana is cocoa" Mr Ankomah said, and assured farmers that government would not neglect its duty towards cocoa farmers because of the oil find.

He said the revival of the Cocoa Extension Division of the Ghana Cocoa Board would boost and promote the production of cocoa. Mr Ankomah said the government had also appointed local cocoa extension facilitators in all cocoa growing communities nationwide to offer technical advise on methods of improving production. He pointed out that the measures would assist the country to hit the expected target of 1,000 million metric tones of cocoa by the year 2013. Mr Ebenezer Agyin, Jukwa District Cocoa Officer, expressed concern about the refusal of some farmers to cut down their infested cocoa trees and appealed to them to rescind the decision. He said if the farmers continued to refuse to allow the officials from Cocoa Swollen Shoot Disease Control Unit (CSSVDCU) to destroy infested farms, it would derail the aims and objectives of the government's cocoa rehabilitation programme.

The District Cocoa Officer said about 1.8 million cocoa trees had been infected with the disease in the Jukwa District and asked the chiefs and opinion leaders to impress upon the farmers to co-operate with the authorities. Mr Philip Bedgyera, Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa District Cocoa Officer, said hybrid cocoa seedlings were ready to be supplied to the farmers at a reduced price to enable them to plant their farms. He cautioned farmers not to use the fresh cocoa pods to plant their farms without approval from the Supply Production Unit (SPU), adding that most of the pods were infested with cocoa diseases which posed a danger to their farms.