COCOBOD Hot Again! As Asunafo South Cocoa Farmers Chase Them For Non-payment Of Compensation Cash
COCOBOD was also accused of not paying monthly salaries to a total of five thousand (5000) workers.
Freeman Koryekpor Awlesu Greater 
The persistent failure of the management of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) to pay the compensation packages due to the farmers of Nhwene and Nnaanyinanse in the Sankore Traditional Area in Asunafo South District of the Ahafo Region whose cocoa trees were cut-down in the ongoing cocoa rehabilitation exercise carried by the COCOBOD has created serious tension in the area.
Aside from non-payment of the compensation packages to the affected cocoa farmers in the district, the COCOBOD was also accused of not paying monthly salaries to the total of five thousand (5000) workers called the weeding gangs that COCOBOD has employed 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 has 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.
The measures were taken after the government realized that cocoa production in the country has declined in the past 10 years due to Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus Disease (CSSVD), which has no chemical control.
To ensure effective implementation of the measures, Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire have launched a joint action to step up efforts at fighting the Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus Disease (CSSVD) Control Programme at Pilla 34 and Manzanouan, both border towns in the Western North Cocoa Region.
The exercise has required the farmers to cut down their cocoa trees for new ones to be planted with the modernized technology that is being introduced by the government.
It has emerged that about 40% of Ghana’s cocoa tree stock was unproductive posing a serious economic threat to cocoa farmers and the country as a whole.
The information available from COCOBOD indicates that out of the affected cocoa trees, 17%ares diseased while 23 %ares moribund and overage.
This reporter gathered further that the Western, Easter,n and Ahafo regions are so far the most endemic regions accounting for approximately 68% infection rate making the situation very alarming thereby requiring aggressive steps to control the spread of the disease in cocoa farms.
However,r at the current crowded press conference held at Nhwene near Sankore to express their grievances, the cocoa farmers who are are 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 organized by the affected cocoa farmers and weeding gangsspelledt out the issues of how the COCOBOD led by Chief Executive, M.r Joseph Boahen Aidoo has influenced the farmers to allow their cocoa trees to be cut down without even replanting of the new seedlings as was promised by the COCOBOD.
During the press conference, the affected
cocoa farmers of Nhwene and Nnaanyinanse shared their grievances about the ongoing cocoa rehabilitation exercise under Ghana Cocoa Board.
The farmers complained bitterly about how COCOBOD is treating them badly after it has cut down the cocoa trees.
According to the farmers, their cocoa farms which were cut down two years ago have not been rehabilitated nor have 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 else" the farmers stressed.
Additionally, the wedding gangs of the district also complained about their unpaid salaries and their sacking from the work 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 tocut down all the diseased cocoa trees in the various cocoa farms in the cocoa-growing communities within the district.
They pointed out that they worked for about four months ago but were not being paid by the management of COCOBOD adding that on Tuesday,y April 5, 202,2 they were asked by the Asunafo South District Officer of COCOBOD, M.r Bobie to stop work without even paying them for their work done for almost four-month periods.
According to them, when they demanded their four monthly salaries from M.r 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 fees to Sunyani and this has forced us to join the farmers to organize the press conference.
For this part, the chief of Nnaanyinanse, Nana Osei Owusu II, and the chief of Nhwene Nana Oppong Stephen also expressed their thought about their people's grievances.
" We are pleading with the COCOBOD to settle our peoples to take care of their children" the chiefs appealed.
