The Cocoa Industry And Ghana's Economy
Years of revival for the golden pod
Poku Adaa
Past governments in Ghana have made tremendous strides in the past few years to revive and rehabilitate the cocoa industry. One of these measures was the establishment of Regional Cocoa projects. Our correspondent makes an examination.The project, like its regional counterpart such as the Ashanti Cocoa project was instituted by the government of Ghana in the early 1970s with World Bank assistance to replant nearly abandoned farms and rehabilitate existing ageing farms. The Eastern Region Project lying in the Suhum district, north of Nsawam and west of Akwadum near Koforidua was earmarked at the outset to replant about 40,000 acres of abandoned farms and rehabilitate about 55,000 acres of mature farms. After the initial World Bank support, the Ghana Cocoa Board (formerly Ghana Cocoa Marketing Board) assumed managerial and financial responsibility of the Eastern Region Cocoa Project (ERCP) often called Suhum Cocoa Project in 1982.
The project's original objectives have since been elaborated to the extent that the project has become a Cocoa Extension Services Centre catering for the whole region. It organises credit facilities for farmers, trains farmers in new modes of production, constructs and maintains feeder roads in the Cocoa farming districts and organises marketing co-operatives. The supply of inputs such as insecticides, equipment and machinery, hybrid seedlings etc. are undertaken by the project centre.
The ERCP has one of the best success stories in Ghana's cocoa industry. By the end of 1983, nearly 33,000 acres of farms have been replanted with high-yielding hybrid cocoa and over 50,000 acres of old mature farms have been rejuvenated. The centre to date has assisted over 20,000 farmers in the region with credit facilities and over 5,000 farmers have received adequate training in modern techniques of cocoa farming.
New cocoa marketing co-operatives have been formed and membership is soon to hit 10,000 farmers. The Project is rekindling the enthusiasm of farmers in the region and has had to construct about 100 km of feeder roads and so far offered secure jobs for over 5,000 school leavers.
The Eastern Region Cocoa Project, like its regional counterparts, has passed through tremendous problems to reach the present levels of her successes. The ravages of drought, bush fires, lack of machinery and insecticides, etc. have done their worst and wiped a chunk of her patrons. Draconian methods have had to be taken to recover out-standing repayments of loans guaranteed by the Centre, but all in all, it is one of the few sunshining facts of Ghana's cocoa industry.
Bags of cocoa ready for export, the country has no control over the market.
