Juaboso: 1700 Rehabilitated Cocoa Farms Ready to be Handing Over

At least 1700 Rehabilitated cocoa farms in the Juaboso District are ready to be handed over to their rightful owners. But for instructions from above, the handing over ceremony would have happened on June 27, 2024, Manager for Cocoa Health and Extension Division (CHED), Samuel Otabiri, has disclosed.

Making the disclosure through his Assistant Technical Officer (ATO), Kingsley Asamoah, pointed out that his outfit was ready for the handing over ceremony but instructions from the presidency caused its indefinite postponement. He indicated that they are now looking forward to a new date from the Presidency. According to the Officers, some of these farms are at Dangermu, Kwaakrom, Amakwaakrom, Gyato, Kotosaa, Beposo, Kwanware and Nsonyameye all in the Juaboso District.

They maintained that they had no backlog, as those outstanding ones as at last year have all been cleared.

According to them, the rehabilitated ones have come about as a result of co-operation between them and the concerned farmers. They were however quick to point out that there are other farmers who hardly co-operate, thus rendering their farms unproductive. Such farmers, they said were only interested in grown plantain on their farm maturing from the plantain suckets grown previously. This group of farmers rather make the work difficult. They indicated that the rehabilitation exercise, initiated  in 2018 by the president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was expected to have been completed in 2023. However, due to the behavior of such uncooperative farmers, the programme still drags on.

COCOBOD’S ROLE

According to the officers, COCOBOD takes all the responsibilities and charges involved in  the exercise. This is because it wants to revamp the cocoa industry and also increase cocoa production in the country. This is because, production figures have dwindles considerably following the upsurge in swallowed shoot in some parts of the western North Region, hence this cocoa rehabilitation programme initiated by the president since 2018.

They indicated that cut cocoa farms also attract grants by way of compensation, and that is what some farmers are interested in, and not the rehabilitation of their farms. The officers mentioned that COCOBOD also takes up all the expenditure on the rehabilitation raining from the provision of cocoa seedlings through the supply of plantain suckers to labour.

Also farmers are provided with economic trees in which they have shares in future.

By S.O Ankamah, Sefwi Juaboso