Nyameama (B/A), Oct. 23, GNA - The Nkrankwanta Cocoa District Office of the produce Buying Company (PBC), has held a day's forum for 200 cocoa farmers in and around Nkrankwanta and Myameama. The aim was to educate the farmers on the need to strictly adhere to laid-down post-harvest cultural practices to minimize the production of purple beans.

The District PBC Manager, Mr Hayford Sakyi Bediako, noted that many cocoa farmers were still addicted to unacceptable traditional methods of fermenting and drying their cocoa beans and thus posing difficulties to the industry.

These traditional practices, he added, caused the PBC making a loss of GH¢120,000 during the last cocoa season when the company detected that much of the cocoa beans it bought were purple and could therefore not be exported.

Mr Bediako explained that cocoa farmers and caretakers in their hurry to sell their produce ignored the good practices. He enjoined cocoa farmers to follow the right processes in fermenting and drying their cocoa beans so as to guarantee themselves globally-accepted cocoa and maximum earning for their effort. The District Manager appealed to cocoa farmers to take advantage of government's recent increase in producer price of cocoa to expand and rehabilitate their farms to maximize yield.

He also called on the youth to go into cocoa farming not only for the industry's numerous prospects, but also for them to succeed their ageing parents to sustain the industry.

Mr Asante Gyamfi, the District PBC Accountant charged the cocoa farmers to comply with the Akuafo Cheque and make themselves eligible for bank loans and other government interventions to maintain their farms.

He assured the cocoa farmers of PBC's continued commitment to encouraging farmers to observe modern methods of production to ensure that Ghana regains its top position among cocoa producing nations of the world.

The Nkrankwanta Cocoa Chief Farmer, Elder Kwasi Frimpong on behalf of his colleagues appealed to Government to rehabilitate access roads to major cocoa growing communities in the district. The company announced that it had provided two barrels of diesel to fuel the Assembly's grader to be used to reshape their terrible roads in cocoa communities such as Paulkrom, Tengakrom and Kwantintin.