Asunafo South Cocoa Farmers Angry At COCOBOD

The continuous failure of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) to pay compensation to farmers of Nhwene and Nnaanyinanse in the Ahafo Region is creating simmering tensions in the area.

Asunafo South Cocoa Farmers Angry At COCOBOD

The continuous failure of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) to pay compensation to farmers of Nhwene and Nnaanyinanse in the Ahafo Region is creating simmering tensions in the area.

These are cocoa farmers whose cocoa trees were cut down in the ongoing cocoa rehabilitation exercise being carried out by the COCOBOD

Aside from the non-payment of the compensation, the COCOBOD was also being accused of not paying monthly salaries to 5,000 workers under the Weeding Gangs module of the COCOBOD whose job is to cut down all diseased cocoa trees in the area for re-planting with new hybrid cocoa seedlings.

As part of the rehabilitation exercise, the COCOBOD hired the services of the wedding gangs with the mandate to cut down all diseased cocoa trees for re-planting with new hybrid cocoa seedlings. 

These measures were taken after the government realised that cocoa production in the country had declined in the past 10 years due to the Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus Disease (CSSVD), which has no chemical control.

And to ensure effective implementation of the measures Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire launched a joint action to step up efforts aimed at fighting the CSSVD Control Programme at Pilla 34 and Manzanouan, both border towns in the Western North Region.

The exercise requires the farmers to cut down their cocoa trees for new ones to be planted with modernised technology that was being introduced by the government.

It has emerged that about 40% of Ghana’s cocoa tree stock were unproductive posing serious economic threats to cocoa farmers and the country as a whole.

The information available from COCOBOD indicates that out of the affected cocoa trees, 17% were diseased while 23 % were moribund and overaged.

This reporter gathered further that the Western, Eastern and Ahafo Regions were so far the most endemic regions accounting for approximately 68% infection rate making the situation very alarming, and thereby requiring aggressive steps to control the spread of the disease on cocoa farms.

However, at a recent crowded press conference held at Nhwene near Sankore to express their grievances, the cocoa farmers who were clad in red bands blamed the COCOBOD for teaming up with the central government to intentionally destroy their cocoa farms without putting measures in place to ensure payment of compensation to them.

The press conference which was jointly organised by the affected cocoa farmers and weeding gangs spelt out the issues of how the COCOBOD led by its Chief Executive, Mr Joseph Boahen Aidoo, had influenced the farmers to allow their cocoa trees to be cut down without even replanting new seedlings as was promised by the COCOBOD.

The farmers complained bitterly about how COCOBOD was treating them badly after they had cut down their cocoa trees.

According to the farmers, their cocoa farms which were cut down two years ago had not been rehabilitated neither had they been paid their compensation as promised earlier.

"We want COCOBOD to replant our cocoa seedlings and also give us our compensation as soon as possible or else we will advise ourselves," the farmers cautioned.

Additionally, the wedding gangs of the district also complained about their unpaid salaries and their dismissal as well.

According to them, they were given an appointment by the COCOBOD in January 2021 but started working in December 2021, with the mandate to cut down all the diseased cocoa trees in the various cocoa farms in cocoa-growing communities within the district.

They pointed out that they worked for only four months and were not paid by the management of COCOBOD, adding that on Tuesday, April 5, 2022, they were asked by the Asunafo South District Officer of COCOBOD, Mr Bobie, to stop work without even paying them the four months job done.

According to them, when they demanded their four-month salaries from Mr Bobie, he directed them to the Sunyani office of COCOBOD but "we told them we have not been paid for four months so we don't have money to pay their transportation to Sunyani and this has forced us to join the farmers to organise this press conference.

For this part, the Chief of Nnaanyinanse, Nana Osei Owusu II, and the Chief of Nhwene, Nana Oppong Stephen, also expressed worry about their people's grievances.

"We are pleading with the COCOBOD to settle our peoples to take care of their children," the chiefs appealed.