Manifesto Watch: Cocoa Sector

A Bawumia-led NPP government will:

• Undertake a mop-up exercise to enrol any cocoa farmer missed in the ongoing Cocoa Farmers Pension Scheme enrolment exercise.
• Strengthen Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) in the development of a high-yielding variety of cocoa and shea, with a shorter maturity period to achieve sustained yields over a 20 – 25-year life cycle, produce up to two million improved cocoa seedlings, and encourage farmers with the capacity to nurse their own seedlings.

Farm Rehabilitation Project
With respect of the Farm Rehabilitation project, the next NPP government will:

• Engage and pay farmers directly to cut down diseased cocoa trees and replant the farms, and give replanting contracts to farmers who prove to be capable of replanting their own farms.
• Support farmers to scale up the annual treatment and rehabilitation of diseased farms, from a yearly average of 10,000 hectares to 40,000 hectares through a special farmer participatory project involving the planting of seedlings, planting of plantain suckers, farm maintenance.
• Continue to pay adequate compensation for every diseased farm treated or replanted.
• Improve access to agricultural services by facilitating access to reclaimed land, digitalisation, finance, inputs, extension, and marketing support.
• Incentivise the private sector to invest in large cocoa plantations.
• Initiate a Youth and Women in Cocoa Farming Programme to encourage youth and women involvement in the sector.
• Encourage the use of CRIG-approved high-value crops as intercrops so farmers can earn additional income from them.
• Ensure transparency and efficient service delivery to cocoa farmers by implementing a transparent pricing mechanism.
• Liberalise the input supply market, to allow multiple suppliers to compete, reducing input costs and improving access. COCOBOD will monitor and regulate this market to ensure fair competition and quality.
• Tackling the challenges of climate change, ageing farms, pests, and diseases by strengthening CRIG in the development of high-yielding, diseases and drought tolerant varieties to achieve sustained yield.
• Promote the use of local agricultural materials, especially own-produced beans, in manufacturing and processing of chocolates and cocoa-based products, and address the negative impact of illegal mining in cocoa growing areas.