The Seedlings Production Division [SPD] of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has said, it will distribute an estimated 140 million cocoa hybrid seedlings to Ghanaian cocoa farmers across the country for replanting.
At a press briefing on Thursday, April 5, the Executive Director of Seed Production Division (S.PD.) of the COCOBOD, Mrs. Faustine Asamany stated clearly that the seedlings will be giving out freely to Cocoa farmers for replanting.
“We are currently at one of the Bunso Nursery sites and this is where we are nursing seedlings for Cocoa farmers and it is given out for free. These seedlings do not keep much time to start bearing fruits, between one and half to two years it’s starts yielding fruits and this is what cocoa farmers should be using”.
The Executive Director cautioned against delay in replanting after the seedlings have been taken from the SPD. She urged the farmers to at all times adhere to the directives given to them by Seed Production Division.
“Nonetheless, if you take the seedlings and do not replant it early, it cannot work for you, because you all know we don’t have rains in summer. Firstly, you must first develop a plantain crops to provide initial shades for the Cocoa seedlings replanting”.
The Executive Director said, it is giving the farmers these hybrid seedlings because in most cases, farmers tend to replant seedlings made from their farms which does not help and usually gets prone to diseases.
“We are giving them these seedlings because these are hybrid seedlings. In most times, farmers use the cocoa made from their farms for replanting and it does not help, these cocoa usually gets prone to disease but hybrid seedlings are not like that, the CRIG has done a lot of work on it and that’s why we’re campaigning for farmers to come for these seedlings”, she said.
The SPD is currently nursing 140 million seedlings in 650 Nursery sites.
“We are currently producing 140 million seedlings freely for farmers in 650 Nursery sites”.
Meanwhile, the Executive Director bemoan the lack of quality water to filter the seedlings have been a major problem for them. She attributed the cause to the incessant illegal mining popularly called Galamsey to be a major issue bothering the SPD.
“We are facing a major problem in distilling water for the filtration of the seedlings. Most of the rivers that we could have used in our operation has been contaminated. Galamsey has spoiled everything. If you attempt, the leaves of the seedlings will change automatically and now we are moving away from such places”.
She said, this menace has incurred additional cost on the SPD and the cocoa farmers. She said, the rivers would have been used for irrigation for the farmers.
The SPD now resort to pull power from an extracted borehole around the Birim River to filter the cocoa seedlings.
The Cocoa Seed Production Division of the COCOBOD has 28 cocoa farm stations scattered across the country. It is intended to formulate additional 12 farms to the existing ones with the 29th farm station already being started.
“We have 28 cocoa stations and this year we are establishing the 29th cocoa station and they are spread all over the cocoa growing areas”, she said.
However, the COCOBOD says it realized that, in the Western Region, they have very few Cocoa Stations. These include Saman, Akyekyere, Buako and Sehwi Akotombra which was established two years ago.
The COCOBOD has added Sankore Cocoa station to Western Region in order for one manager to take care of, but a recent approval has given the COCOBOD the mandate split the Western Region into two thus, Western North and Western South because the COCOBOD has planned to establish additional Cocoa Stations.
In all, the COCOBOD is planning to establish 12 additional Cocoa Stations apart from what it has currently. The Executive Director said, it is currently working on the acquisition of the land, consent of the farmers or the land owner, additional plan will come in and COCOBOD will pay compensation to all the affected persons before the development begins.
The first Bunso Nursery site currently has 345,000 seedlings and additional 250,000, making 595,000 seedlings in Bunso cocoa station combined.
The mandate of the Seed Production Division has been extended to monitor what the S.P.D is doing. The initial mandate was supposed to produce planting materials in best quantities to supply farmers at a cost effective manner.
“Farmers are required to register with CHED, they will measure your farm if it’s is new one, and it will determine the seedlings we will have to supply the farmer. CHED will issue a Chits to come to us then we take down your particulars for our records before we can supply the farmer the seedlings it for the Rehabilitated farms, it is CHED who is doing the Rehabilitation and they know where those farms are and we reserving half of the seedlings for that purpose”, she stated.
These Nursery sites are scattered around all the cocoa growing areas and it’s easy for farmers to locate the SPD.
