africatodayonline.blogspot.com -
Business News of 2013-11-28
About 200 cocoa experts and policy makers are meeting in Accra to find a sustainable solution to emerging threats posed by illegal mining, logging and climate change, which are negatively affecting the country’s cocoa production.
It is expected that the outcome of the two-day Ghana Cocoa Platform (GCP) conference will evolve ideas and programmes to reposition Ghana as the world’s leading producer of cocoa.
Ghana is the third leading producer of cocoa in the world, after Indonesia (second) and Cote d’Ivoire.
Speaking at the opening of the first plenary session of the GCP, the National Co-ordinator of the platform, Mrs Rita Owusu-Amankwah, said despite strides in the cocoa sector in Ghana, it was still bedeviled with many challenges that needed to be fixed if the country was to regain its past glory.
Threats to cocoa production
Mrs Owusu-Amankwah said cocoa farmers had problems such as the lack of access to credit facilities and the increasing menace of illegal mining, popularly referred to as galamsey.
“It is important to stem the current situation where farmers continue to lose their farms to mining and other land use such as rubber plantations and restore the pride and dignity of cocoa farming,” she stressed.
Ghana’s cocoa production
Ghanaian farmers produce 400 kg of cocoa per hectare, while farmers in Cote d’Ivoire and Indonesian produce 600 kg and 1,000 kg of cocoa per hectare, respectively.
Mrs Owusu-Amankwah attributed the low production in Ghana to weak institutions and co-ordination, pests and plants diseases, inadequate extension services and poor access to credit and inputs.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Cocoa Board, Mr Anthony Fofie, described the GCP as ‘the beginning of the process of deepening our engagement with the private sector and civil society to ensure that we build a sustainable cocoa industry.”
Business News of 2013-11-28
About 200 cocoa experts and policy makers are meeting in Accra to find a sustainable solution to emerging threats posed by illegal mining, logging and climate change, which are negatively affecting the country’s cocoa production.
It is expected that the outcome of the two-day Ghana Cocoa Platform (GCP) conference will evolve ideas and programmes to reposition Ghana as the world’s leading producer of cocoa.
Ghana is the third leading producer of cocoa in the world, after Indonesia (second) and Cote d’Ivoire.
Speaking at the opening of the first plenary session of the GCP, the National Co-ordinator of the platform, Mrs Rita Owusu-Amankwah, said despite strides in the cocoa sector in Ghana, it was still bedeviled with many challenges that needed to be fixed if the country was to regain its past glory.
Threats to cocoa production
Mrs Owusu-Amankwah said cocoa farmers had problems such as the lack of access to credit facilities and the increasing menace of illegal mining, popularly referred to as galamsey.
“It is important to stem the current situation where farmers continue to lose their farms to mining and other land use such as rubber plantations and restore the pride and dignity of cocoa farming,” she stressed.
Ghana’s cocoa production
Ghanaian farmers produce 400 kg of cocoa per hectare, while farmers in Cote d’Ivoire and Indonesian produce 600 kg and 1,000 kg of cocoa per hectare, respectively.
Mrs Owusu-Amankwah attributed the low production in Ghana to weak institutions and co-ordination, pests and plants diseases, inadequate extension services and poor access to credit and inputs.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Cocoa Board, Mr Anthony Fofie, described the GCP as ‘the beginning of the process of deepening our engagement with the private sector and civil society to ensure that we build a sustainable cocoa industry.”
