The Ghana National Cocoa Farmers Association has threatened to embark on a strike over continuous neglect by the government towards their welfare.
According to the President of the Association, Stephen Anane Boateng, the Ghana COCOBOD has consistently failed to implement policies that will inure to their benefit, though they produce the crops and that without them, there will be no COCOBOD.
“The sad aspect is that they have no respect for we the cocoa farmers. The same Parliamentary provision that says we should not sell our cocoa farms to anyone, also binds on COCOBOD to implement policies that will cater for our welfare. But COCOBOD is always looking for the welfare of it’s members, rather than we the cocoa farmers,” he bemoaned.
Speaking on Adom TV’s the Big Agenda show with Nana Osei Ampofo Adjei, Mr Boateng expressed worry over the fact that government always sidelines them anytime it wants to increase cocoa prices, since they are the producers on the ground and that they know well what they go through in their field of work.
According to him “anytime government wants to increase cocoa prices, it goes around negotiating with stakeholders and ignores we the cocoa farmers. We feel that government should negotiate with us directly because we’re in the field and we understand what we go through in producing cocoa.”
He also stated that somewhere in August this year, they wrote to COCOBOD that they had given them up to 30th of that month, to call for a meeting with them to deliberate on cocoa issues, but that request never saw the light of the day.
All these, he said, smack of total disrespect from the government and the Ghana COCOBOD, and that if nothing is done about it, they will embark on a strike to register their displeasure on their continuous neglect and unfair treatment.