Cocoa farmers in the Nsawam – Adoagyiri Municipality of the Eastern Region, at the weekend appealed to the Health and Extension Unit of the Cocoa Services Department to increase the number of spraying machine in the area.

Making the appeal through the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Opanin Kwasi Akuffo, Chief Farmer for the Produce Buying Company Limited (PBC) society/shed at Nsawam, said one spraying machine for the whole municipality was woefully inadequate.

He said most of the farmers in the municipality did not benefit from this year’s cocoa spraying exercise, dubbed CODAPEC, because there was only one machine for the spraying gang, inhibiting them to carry out the exercise effectively.

Opanin Kwasi Akuffo also noted that, there were several occasions that the fuel supplied for the machine by the Cocoa Services Department was not sufficient to meet the expected number of farms to be sprayed, adding that, “This and other negative factors caused a setback in the CODAPEC exercise”.

He listed a number of towns and villages where large cocoa farms were located, but did not benefit from the spraying exercise as Ahwerease, Nioka, Dago, Fahiako, Pakro, Teacher Mante, Obonsu, Mama Dede, Mepom and Ntowkrom.

The Chief Farmer said materials like gloves and goggles for the spraying gang delayed in coming, and that, the gang is yet to take delivery of their wellington boots, which protects them from reptiles and enables them to move to muddy areas in the farms.

He congratulated the Directorate of the Suhum District Cocoa Services Department, which has additional oversight responsibility for the Nsawam – Adoagyiri Municipality, for the hard work done, but reminded the directorate that some of the farms in the area had not been measured yet.

He said one measuring machine for the vast farms was also inadequate to execute the work, which qualifies a farm for the government’s allocation of free hybrid cocoa seedlings and fertilizers.