Don’t use children for hazardous jobs on cocoa farms

Tarkwa, Sept. 15, GNA – The Ghana COCOBOD is organizing series of rallies in cocoa growing areas across the country to sensitize farmers to end the engagement of children as labourers on their farms.

Under the auspices of the Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus Diseases Control Unite Programme (CSSVDCU) and the Quality Control Outfit, the exercise would cover seven regions and 41 districts.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at one of the rallies at Mile 5, one of the leading cocoa growing communities in the Tarkwa-Nsueam Municipality, the Western Regional Extension officer of COCOBOD, Mr. Joseph Kofi Sacjah, explained that their main objective was to enlighten cocoa farmers on the need to adhere to the international certification process.

He mentioned good agricultural, social and environmental practices as areas that the international certification process considered, saying child labor was part of the social aspect.

He said the practice of child labour undermined Ghana’s certification process following a survey completed in 2008.

He said they wanted farmers to strictly adhere to the ethics of their job, especially not to endanger the health, safety, education and wellbeing of children under 18.

Mr. Sacjah said when farmers uphold their ethics, Ghana would be saved from losing a lot of her revenue from its leading foreign exchange earner because foreign pressure groups have threatened to reject cocoa produced from ‘Child Labour Farms’.

He, therefore, appealed to cocoa farmers to desist from engaging children who are less than 18 in any form of economic activity, which is not acceptable by law.

The Deputy Director of the Social Welfare Department at Tarkwa, Mr. E.K Wiredu, warned that those who continue to engage the services of under-aged children in hazardous work would be prosecuted at the law courts.