Showcase new findings on cocoa - JAK to researchers

Accra, Oct. 13, GNA- President John Agyekum Kufuor on Monday said the challenge facing researchers in the cocoa industry was to develop appropriate communication, marketing and public relations strategies to showcase the many scientific break-through of the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG).

He said the major economic and scientific breakthrough included the high yielding and quick bearing hybrid cocoa as well as the commercially viable products derived from cocoa bye-products.

This, he said, would convince the young persons of the changed face of modern scientific farming and its potential for generating great wealth to stay in the rural areas.

"It is only when such young, knowledgeable and dedicated persons embark on cocoa farming and others exploit its commercial, industrial and manufacturing potential locally, that the nation can be assured of a sustainable cocoa industry," the President said.

President Kufuor was giving a keynote address to open the weeklong 14th International Cocoa Research Conference, in Accra, organized jointly by the Ghana Cocoa Board, the Cocoa Producers Alliance (COPAL) and the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG). Members from the 10-member COPAL as well as observers from other cocoa producing countries are attending the conference.

The Conference has the theme: "Towards a Sustainable Cocoa Economy-What Strategies to This End?"

President Kufuor said issues of strategies for appropriate land use, coupled with environmental awareness and discipline, found within the constraints of the country's socio-cultural practices and current demographic realities; additional value to cocoa beans, and the development of the local market for cocoa products must engage the attention of the researcher.

"Ultimately, the successful implementation of results of such researches should lead to pervasive scientific farming and husbandry to assure optimal returns on resources used per acre of land under cultivation."

The President expressed happiness at the recent success in the cocoa industry, and said as a result of applied research from the CRIG, and through mass spraying and farm fertilisation, cocoa production jumped from 350,000 tons last year, to 500,000 tons this year.

President Kufuor said until last year, only 18 per cent of the produce was processed, and added that with the increasing foreign direct investment, "we are targeting within the short term 40 per cent processing."

"It is also important to explore development of the domestic market for cocoa products like drinks, soaps and creams", he said. He said modern farming required farmers with requisite educational and technical know-how, or investors who would normally hire appropriate staff to man their farms."

Mr Kwame Sarpong, Chief Executive of the Ghana Cocoa Board, said the CRIG continued to search for more improved planting materials, and added that there were prospects for biochemical genetics, tissue culture and mutation breeding, and appropriate cultivation strategies for the control of the swollen shoot virus.

He said besides the prospects for developing cocoa varieties resistant to the black pod and capsids and the use of other biological control measures, the Integrated Pest Management, were being studied at the CRIG and might complement the use of conventional insecticides for the control of other pests.

Mr Sarpong said CRIG has established a New Products Development Unit to investigate the production of animal potash from husk, alcoholic beverages, marmalade and jelly and pectin extracted from cocoa butter and beans and pastries from cocoa powder, and added that preparations were being made to ensure the commercialisation of those products in future.

Dr Jan Vingerhoets, Acting Executive Director of the International Cocoa Organisation (ICCO) said international stable prices could only be assured by maintaining a close balance between supply and demand in the world market.

He said there was the need to go back to the instruments of buffer stocks, withholding scheme and export quota.

Dr Vingerhoets called for further grip on long-term developments in the market, stressing on transparency on long- term trends in supply, demand and prices.

He announced that under the new Cocoa Agreement, which came into force about two weeks ago, the ICCO, which hitherto brought together both producers and consumers primarily at the inter-governmental level, would now have a much closer involvement with the private sector in its work.

The conference, chaired by Senior Minister Joseph Henry Mensah, is a biennial conference to review levels of cocoa research in producer countries.