Dunkwa — The 2011 National Best farmer, Mr. Ignatius Agbo, has indicated that Ghana stands to lose volumes of tonnes in cocoa if the mass spraying exercise is not intensified.
He wants government to take pragmatic steps to augment cocoa production and maintain growth in the cocoa industry. Mr Agbo suggested that the government should consider assisting farmers to spray their cocoa farms three times in a year, as a way of ensuring that cocoa yields are maintained.
The chief farmer said the government should not play politics with the cocoa industry and make spraying insecticides accessible to farmers.
He told The Chronicle in an interview that farmers are finding it difficult to get the right insecticide to spray their farms for more yields and complained that the government is not making any effort to improve upon the situation.
The farmer chief pointed out that the brand of fertilizer imported for cocoa farmer during the regime of former President Kufuor was far better than what is being supplied to farmers now.
In a related development, the chief of Dunkwa, Nana Obeng Nuako II has called for the involvement of farmers in the growth of the agricultural sector.
He observed that the weather coupled with inadequate spraying machines have affected cocoa yield this year as compared to one million tonnes of cocoa produced in Ghana in previous years.
The chief suggested that the government should import farming inputs for supply to farmers at subsidized prices.