Breman Kuntanse C/R, Aug 10, GNA - The Central Regional Chief Farmer, Nana Tutu, has reiterated the call on cocoa farmers to invest in their children's education, saying that was the best legacy they could leave their offspring.

He said gone are the days when cocoa farmers used all their earnings to marry more women and lined their rooms with material things. Speaking at a farmers' rally at Breman Kuntanse in the Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa District organized by the Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus Division of Ghana Cocoa Board (CSSVD) Nana Tutu said the only way farmers could reduce poverty was to educate their children. He told the farmers to desist from sending their children to work in the farms at the expense of education.

Mrs Faustine Asamany, Deputy Central Regional Manager of the division, appealed to the farmers to assign children roles that would be commensurate with their age.

She said since the campaign against child labour was launched in Sefwi Dabiso, the problem had gone down and appealed to chief farmers and opinion leaders to step up education on the dangers of child labour. Nana Odoom Kweku Essilfie III, Chief of Breman Kuntanase, appealed to the division to create additional spraying gangs in the town. He said the division created 40 spraying gangs between 2003 and 2006 in the Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa District but Breman Kuntanase was given only one gang and that was not sufficient to spray numerous farms in the town.

Nana Essilfie said the farmers were of the view that they had been sidelined and discriminated and this is affecting cocoa production in the area.

Mr Godfred Mnfodjo, Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa District Manager of the division, said the district could not create spraying gangs without approval from Accra and that their concern would be forwarded to headquarters.