Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Joseph Boahen Aidoo has attributed low cocoa yields under the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to bad farming practices.
Mr Aidoo had earlier asserted that, the decrease in cocoa output is due to natural occurrences, not mismanagement.
However, speaking on Adom FM’s Burning Issues with Akua Boakyewaa Yiadom, Mr Aidoo said the NDC was only interested in distributing free fertilisers.
According to him, fertilisers alone do not boost cocoa yields in the absence of best practices such as pruning, and weeding.
He noted that, after the New Patriotic Party (NPP) assumed office, they introduced the hand pollination, which many farmers can attest has improved their output.
He said government has also introduced free pruning for the cocoa farmers and have also intensified education on the appropriate farming practices.
“The free fertilizers, by the NDC didn’t help the farmers. Under President Kufuor, the fertilizers were there but it was subsidized. Now if you give out the fertilizers for free and the farming practice is bad, it won’t yield anything positive. If you give the fertilizers to the farmer, you must also train them on pruning and weeding and other practices so that the fertilizers can do it’s work.
“Ours is to subsidize the cost of fertilizers and also assist the farmers with free pruning, and the hand pollination. That is why you can see that cocoa production over the last eight years has been higher than the previous administration”
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