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0 Joseph Boahen Aidoo, Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), has stated that his greatest achievement at COCOBOD is to save two-thirds of Ghana’s cocoa productive areas that were affected by the swollen shoot disease when he assumed office in 2017.
According to him, about 17 percent of the country’s productive areas, mainly in Sefwi-Wiaso in the Western North region, were affected by the virus, which cannot be cured chemically and therefore needed to be cut down and new seedlings planted.
He expressed satisfaction with the cocoa rehabilitation exercise his outfit spearheaded to save the country’s cocoa sector.
In an interview with Accra-based Joy FM on Wednesday, June 12, Mr Boahen Aidoo emphasised the dire impact the disease had on cocoa production before he came into office, stressing that Ghana’s entire cocoa sector could have been disseminated.
“We’ve achieved a lot but I must say that our greatest achievement has been with the rehabilitation of the cocoa swollen shoot virus disease farms. It was a fundamental structural problem, disseminating almost the entire cocoa landscape.
“That was what was happening to the cocoa industry in Ghana. When we assumed office in 2017 we realised that the disease had taken almost about 17% of the productive cocoa area largely in the Western North…the Sefwi area.”
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He indicated that more than 200,000 hectares of cocoa farms in the Sefwi were affected by the disease, posing a significant threat to the cocoa industry, emphasising that no Ghanaian farmer was able to remedy their affected farms.
“In total, the Sefwi area has over 300,000 hectares of cocoa area and more than 200,000, that is two-thirds, had been affected by the disease. This disease had no cure. There is no chemical remedy to it…it’s a virus and the only solution is to cut the trees and then replant.
“When we came in we felt there was the need to do that because no farmer in Ghana on his/her own could be able to do that, so we have to intervene with seed support. I must say that the results have been very significant.
“And it is our greatest achievement… to save the industry, at least to give hope to the Ghanaian cocoa farmer and also to tell the world that we have some kind of solution to the problem,” he stated.
Meanwhile, Mr Boahen Aidoo revealed that he faced significant financial challenges when he assumed office in January 2017.
The post Cocoa sector: Swollen shoot disease had taken 17% of productive area when I assumed office in 2017 – COCOBOD CEO first appeared on 3News.
