Professor Oduro Owusu called for more efforts to be made to “curb the unwarranted destruction of lands and the environment” especially in cocoa growing areas, where the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) recently reported that about 19,000 hectares of cocoa farms had been destroyed due to the activities of illegal gold miners.
“I find it very hard to understand why as a nation, we cannot be united to fight ‘evils’ that threaten the future of our dear country.”
He warned that if nothing concrete was done about the danger of illegal mining, the country might soon depend on the imports of food and potable water.
He said, “polluted water bodies, destroyed aquatic lives, as well as shrink pathways of water bodies, are matters that may cost us so much as a nation.”
Besides this danger to our water and land, he also cautioned that due to the presence of heavy metals like mercury in the soil from illegal mining activities, it was becoming difficult for Ghana’s cocoa to pass the heavy metals test when shipped to other jurisdictions.
He thus urged scientists at CRIG to research how long it would take for the destroyed lands to be restored to their original states.
Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Yaw Frimpong Addo, who represented Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto at the event, noted that the theme of the lecture, ‘COCOBOD @75: Sustaining our environment, wealth and health,’ epitomizes the government’s policy direction for the cocoa sector “by securing sustainable farming practices alongside boosting domestic cocoa production.”
He said interventions in the sector, such as hand pollination, rehabilitation of cocoa farms, pruning, and the supply of farming inputs had positively influenced production patterns.
He stated that work on the COCOBOD Cocoa Management System, a database of all farmers in the country, was near completion with the data about 664, 529 farmers so far captured unto it.
This, he said, would make it easy for the implementation of the Cocoa Farmers’ Pension Scheme.
He commended the various players in the cocoa sector as well as all those who were at the helm of affairs at COCOBOD since its establishment 75 years ago.
Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD, Joseph Boahen Aidoo, on his part stated that “making the cocoa industry more vibrant requires that cocoa farmers are better remunerated.”
This, he explained, was the motivation behind the 29% increase in the producer price of cocoa from GH¢8,240 to GH¢10,560.