EDITORIAL: Cocoa And the Economy

COCOA CONTRIBUTED 641,191 billion cedis to the country's economy as export duty while the export value of cocoa beans as the end of 20000/05 amounted to US$837 million.

This shows that cocoa, not withstanding the present good price of gold on the world market, can still be considered the lifeblood of the economy.

Coming from the horse's own mouth, the Chief Executive of Ghana Cocoa Board, Mr. Isaac Osei, confirmed that apart from being the country's leading revenue-earning commodity, cocoa had and continues to be the mainstay in the rural areas and this is rightly so.

But for the country to maintain cocoa as the lifeblood of the economy, a lot has to be done.

Presently, some farmers are disillusioned about the behaviour of some of the Purchasing Clerks (PCs), who are actually misusing cocoa purchasing cash for their own diabolical ventures. The politicization of the cocoa spraying exercise needs to be looked into; the resourcing of both the seed gardens and the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) at Akyem-Tafo and the education of the farmers on the purple beans disease and the maintaining of Ghana cocoa's high quality on the would market, should not be joked with.

Sight must also not be lost on the tricks of some of the Local Buying Companies (LBCs) that have refused to accept the Akuafo cheque system, thereby creating avenues for the purchasing clerks to starve the farmers when payments are due for purchases made.

The cocoa industry is plagued with a myriad of problems not only from the conduct of the some of the PCs of the LBCs but also from some of the staff of the Cocobod itself. For instance, the scholarships for farmers' children are manipulated by some of the staff with the names of their own children or their cronies rather than the children of these farmers.

By conniving with a PC and a treasurer, these staff members or their cronies could become the beneficiaries of these scholarships after the PC and the treasurer have filled the forms and affirmed the existence of such names as farmers' wards in their zones or districts.

The warehousing scheme of the Board should also be sped up to ease the plight of the haulage drivers who cart the cocoa beans to the two ports of Takoradi and Tema from the hinterland.

So the arrival of Diplomat Osei to steer the affairs of the Board should be encouraged to help him eradicate the problems affecting the cocoa industry. As an advice, Mr. Osei should not play with the bonuses of the farmers, and The Chronicle is glad that he had promised paying the farmers the due bonuses if the price of cocoa on the world market rises.

The case concerning the jute sacks should be one of the major problems that catch the immediate attention of the new Cocoa Capo, and with his good relationship with government, he could try to urge government to have a serious second look at the Kumasi Jute Factory to ease the country's huge expenditure on importing jute bags from Malaysia, India and other countries.

We should all play our roles effectively to have our golden tree continue to be the pivot around which our economy revolves. The intrigues associated with doings and goings-on at the headquarters of Cocobod must cease for a harmonious atmosphere to reign for the new Chief Executive.