Dormaa (B/A), April 20, GNA - Mr Isaac Osei, Chief Executive of Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), has warned licensed cocoa buying companies to refrain from adjusting weighing scales in order to cheat cocoa farmers and maximize profits for their companies.

The Chief Executive said a task force constituted under the auspices of the Board to inspect weighing scales at purchasing points would not spare any company or individual found indulging in the practice.

The Chief Executive was addressing a forum for Brong-Ahafo Regional and District Chief farmers, representatives of licensed buying companies in the Dormaa District as well as cocoa farmers at Dormaa-Ahenkro as part of his tour of cocoa producing areas in the Region.

Mr Osei noted that any attempt by purchasing companies "to cash in on the ignorance or poverty of the innocent cocoa farmer is tantamount to jeopardizing government efforts at revamping the cocoa industry and making Ghana regain her once enviable global status in cocoa production and export".

He expressed grave concern about rumours at the international level that cocoa farmers in Ghana had engaged the services of minors on their farms to minimize costs.

The practice, Mr Osei said, did not only tarnish the image of Ghana internationally but also sought to deny such minors their right to education.

He announced that the government would soon come out with a programme to provide cocoa producing communities that had not yet been hooked to the national electricity grid with solar-propelled streetlights, while measures would be taken to extend electricity to them.

He said solar flashlights would also be sold to the farmers at subsidized cost as part of the interim lighting measure.

The Chief Executive noted that prudent agricultural policies of the current government over the past six years indicated that farmers in the country, given the funds and logistics would be able to meet the nation's food requirements and produce surplus for export. He cited the introduction of cocoa spraying, hi-tech, supply of fertilizer and other chemicals to cocoa farmers and the availability of sustained education for farmers at some areas where the government had scored creditably.

Mr Osei said these programmes had culminated in Ghana hitting the mark of 740,000 metric tonnes of cocoa last year, while the number of cocoa farmers had also increased to 720,000. He disagreed with some purchasing companies, which maintained that bonuses to cocoa farmers were paid in bits, adding that bonuses were usually released in full to the companies and must therefore be given to the farmers as such.

The Chief Executive advised cocoa farmers to adopt the use of Akuafo cheques so as to have access to credit from the banks they transact business with.

Squadron Leader Ben Anane Asamoah (rtd) The District Chief Executive for Dormaa expressed the hope that the Chief Executive's visit would rekindle the spirit of hard work and commitment to the development of agriculture.

Nana D D Oppong, Dormaa District Chief Farmer, traced the plight of cocoa farmers in the district to bushfires in 1983, saying ever since several farms had remained unplanted.

He said the fires resulted in COCOBOD's decision to remove the cocoa district headquarters from Dormaa-Ahenkro to Berekum, denying the district a seal and cancelling its name from the list of cocoa producing districts at the COCOBOD headquarters.

During an open forum, the participants described the Chief Executive's visit as "unprecedented and a necessary tool to galvanize cocoa farmers into more serious action this year". They prescribed stiffer penalties for companies and individuals who cheated and sabotaged the efforts of cocoa farmers.

The forum urged the government to consider, as a matter of urgency, the reshaping of feeder roads linking cocoa areas to urban centres to facilitate the conveyance of their produce to marketing centres. Nana Adjei Damoah, Brong-Ahafo Regional Chief Farmer, who presided, described the Chief Executive's visit as timely and an inspiration for veterans as well as prospective cocoa farmers. He urged cocoa farmers to abide by laid down cultural practices to ensure maximum yield and also avoid practices that result in the production of purple beans. 20 April 07