Wiamoase (Ash), Nov. 25, GNA - Seventy cocoa farmers in the Sekyere West and Afigya-Sekyere districts of Ashanti were on Thursday honoured in recognition of their contribution to sustaining the crop as Ghana's leading export earner.

They were presented with Wellington boots, cutlasses, solar lambs and clothes valued at 30 million cedis at an awards ceremony organized by the Produce Buying Company (PBC) at Wiamoase in the Afigya-Sekyere district.

Mr Emmanuel Owusu Boakye, the Managing Director of PBC in a speech read on his behalf, commended the farmers for keeping faith with the country's drive towards becoming a middle-income nation by the turn of the millennium.

He said it was for this reason that the company chose as the theme for this year's awards ceremonies, "The Cocoa Farmer, The Marketing clerk and the Akuafo Cheque - The Way Forward". "This theme has been carefully chosen as a response to recent developments in the internal market of the cocoa industry and to bring the Akuafo Cheque system of paying cocoa farmers into prospective", he added.

Mr Boakye explained that the Akuafo cheque payments was introduced to bring sanity into the system and resolve delays that were associated with cash payments of cocoa in the past. According to him, as the system was about to gain acceptance among cocoa farmers, the re-introduction of multiple buying agencies seems to have destabilize the gains that have been achieved. The Managing Director gave the assurance that his company would continue to recognize and reward the key roles that farmers and marketing clerks continue to play in the cocoa industry. He advised the farmers to follow laid down cocoa drying and fermentation procedures in order to sustain Ghana's enviable image as a producer of high quality cocoa beans.

In a welcoming address, the PBC District Manager for Sekyere West and Afigya-Sekyere, Mr Augustine Yao Boglo, appealed to the award winners to put in the best to justify the trust reposed in them. Nana Akutin Ababio, chief of Akwamu and an award winner, on behalf of his colleagues appealed to the government to rehabilitate feeder roads in the area so that cocoa farmers could easily move their produce to buying centres. He said the farmers would continue to put in their best to sustain the cocoa industry. Nov. 25 05