Kufuor calls for ECOWAS initiative to fight cocoa disease

Tema, Aug. 19, GNA - President John Agyekum Kufuor on Tuesday called for an ECOWAS initiative to combat the swollen shoot virus disease, a major threat to the sub-region's cocoa industry. Inaugurating a GHC 23.7 million Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) Dzata Bu Warehouse Complex in Tema, he noted that the disease was a problem haunting not only Ghana but the other cocoa producing nations in the West African sub-region.

In the meantime, President Kufuor has directed COCOBOD to intensify its programme to contain it in the country.

The complex comprising of five warehousing blocks with a total capacity for the storage of 50,000 tonnes of cocoa and equipped with weighbridges, conveyor belts and forklifts, the facility was built by COCOBOD to help end the seasonal congestion at the ports, where articulated trucks carrying cocoa litter the streets at the "Take-Over-Centres" causing embarrassment to both the Board and Government.

It also has office accommodation for the Quality Control Division of the Board, Cocoa Marking Company Limited and the Licensed Buying Companies as well as canteen and sanitary systems. A similar complex with a storage capacity for 100,000 tonnes and estimated to cost 65 million dollars has been programmed to be constructed at Kajebril in the Ahanta West District of the Western Region.

President Kufuor said work on this would begin next month. With such modernization, the Government was expecting high level of efficiency and accountability.

He announced that 100 selected cocoa and sheanut communities had been earmarked for supply of good drinking water through the provision of solar-powered pumps within the next two months.

Out of this, the Western region would have 30, Ashanti, 15, Brong-Ahafo, Eastern, Central and the Northern regions, 10 each, with the rest, Volta, Upper East and Upper West, benefiting from five each. In addition, President Kufuor said there was going to be the installation of solar street lights in 350-400 other cocoa communities in deprived areas.

Both projects would be implemented on pilot basis and would be replicated in subsequent years.

He re-affirmed the Government's support for the various policy interventions of the COCOBOD aimed at sustaining continued growth of the country's cocoa industry, mentioning among these improvements in payment of remuneration to farmers, bi-annual bonus payments, nationwide pest and disease control and cocoa high-tech practices. Professor George Gyan Baffour, Deputy Minister of Finance, asked the Board to ensure that post-harvest losses were reduced to the minimum.

Additionally, operations in the warehouse should be properly managed to ensure best book-keeping practices and efficiency. Mr Isaac Osei, Chief Executive Officer of the COCOBOD, gave assurance of their determination to sustain the enviable quality of the country's cocoa.

To this end, a new Quality Control Office and a state-of-the-art laboratory equipped to carry out on site real tests would be built on the premise of the Dzata Bu Warehouse. This, he said, would enable the Board to adhere to new international regulations especially those on maximum residue limits of chemicals in cocoa beans.