Akyem Dwenase, Aug. 19, GNA - the Swollen Shoot Virus Disease has affected 7,026 cocoa trees in the Eastern Region as at July, Mr Antwi Agyei, Deputy Regional Manager of the Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus Disease Control Unit (CSSVDCU) of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has said. He said this at a cocoa farmers rally at Dwenase in the Kade District last Friday aimed at educating the farmers on the scientific techniques in the treatment of the disease.

Mr Agyei said the Kade District recorded over 1,000 diseased cocoa trees within that period and expressed worry about the refusal of some cocoa farmers in the area not to allow the affected trees to be uprooted.

Mr Agyei told the farmers that the only way to prevent the disease from spreading to other farms was to destroy the affected trees by uprooting them.

Mr Ebenezer K. Agyen, the District Cocoa farmer, said the disease was having devastating effect on farms in the area. He said since a farmer detected the virus at Nankese in 1930, various measures taken to eradicate it proved unsuccessful and appealed to farmers whose farms had been affected to allow the tress to be uprooted.

Nana Amoa Kukou Ntrakwa 11, Akyem Dwenasehene, reminded the farmers that cocoa played an important role in the national economy and urged that they would not do anything to retard progress. He said he was not happy about wards of politicians getting scholarships to further their education to the exclusion of poor cocoa farmer's children and urged the COCOBOD to do something about it. 19 Aug. 07