Nene Asare, Chief Farmer of Anum Apapam in the Suhum Municipality, has said that the practice of charging fees before spraying cocoa farms is illegal and unacceptable.

“It seriously undermines the spraying exercise, since the chemicals and other inputs are procured by the government and the spraying is to be done free of charge,” he pointed out.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at his society (cocoa shed) at Anum Apapam, Nene Asare stated that despite the successes chalked to demonstrate beyond doubt that cocoa farming could be lucrative, the CODAPEC programme (Spraying exercise) was beset with several challenges.

According to him; “inadequate spraying gangs was a major problem and consequently full coverage of farms had not been possible”.

He said as part of efforts to arrest the decline in cocoa production, the COCOBOD initiated this exercise to assist all cocoa farmers in the country to expand their farms, and to help put more money into the pockets of farmers, as well as create jobs for the unemployed youth in rural communities

Nene Asare advised cocoa farmers to prune their cocoa trees, cut down unwanted ones, and co-operate with the spraying gangs to ensure proper application of insecticides.

The chief farmer urged farmers to collaborate with the Health and Extension Officers in their farming activities, since such approach to cocoa farming will definitely contribute a lot to increasing yields and productivity.