Reviving the once lost cocoa farming in Ghana

Cocoa farming was among the major cash crops grown in Ghana, as one of the key things that improve the country’s gross domestic income, and one of the best and most active in farming such crops

Cocoa and pest in Ghana started way around 1936, it happens as a result of the mistletoe disease when the symptoms where observed, and other problems came up subsequently

Research on Cocoa in Ghana and Nigeria have come a long way as they have a lot in common, they collaborations lead share research findings  every year Among the major problems affecting cocoa is a major one, the research institute says it is doing its best to manage and, tackle the disease

Cocoa institute is now seen as a center of research while student come for their research

Genesis

The 2 main disease affecting the cocoa business in Ghana are, solo pod and the black pod disease which as of now the Ghana cocoa  institute is working on trying to manage the disease as, they classified it as a viral disease which has no remedy.

In an interaction with the executive director of cocoa research institute  Dr F M Amoah ,says over 200 million cocoa trees have been removed to eradicate the spread of the disease and are been replanted while the breeders are working on producing seeds that are resistant to such diseases

According to him researchers are also putting other agronomic practices to ensure the spread of the disease is minimal, they also encourage about farming sanitation, as the disease is a disturbing disease

Cameroon which is a major country that produce cocoa don’t have the disease on their crops but the solo pod disease is a treat to Ghana and ivory coast according to, Dr F M Amoah as for the black pod disease scientist have introduce chemical that control the disease as the disease can destroy a whole farm, the only solution of eradication can be done by farm sanitation coupled with applying chemicals on the farm

However, Nigeria, Ghana Cameroon and Ivory Coast are major delays of cocoa farmers

Over the years cocoa research institute Ghana of  institute has done a lot, in tackling cocoa related disease ,with the help of the government intervention  decade ago , the major pest is the , black pod and the solo pod ,

According to the institute direct he says about 1000 agronomy materials were been evaluated and are working with farmers in coaching them indigenous knowledge of the cocoa planting

These chemical were designed for the cocoa farmers which are use 3 times in a year

Although the director says in 2010 Ghana cultivated 1million tones as a result of the intervention carried out with farmers and researchers quest to support farmers

He says the ultimate is to resist the use of pesticides, researchers are trying they to avoid the consistent use of chemicals, considering the farmers health as well the crops that are been sprayed

The institute makes it a call to duty for farmers to know anything about the cocoa research is authentic, making them have confidence with the institute.

The major things produced out of the are chocolates vinegar, alcohol cream, and soap among others

However the director of the institute says they don’t have any GMO on cocoa as they sell most of the materials to the European countries that don’t bother much about the GMO crops

According a member of the African agricultural technology foundation, Dr Prince Addae when asking about why Ghana is no more r=topping the rank in best produced country as it has been known for just like the groundnut pyramind in the north ,he says although  he grew up in Tafo where the institute of the cocoa was  – the technology is developing the key element of this technologies have not develop a genre for the dicotyledonous plant which is very hard as cotton is in the group ,it  takes 11month to take up the genre .He says the biological process is long

But on the Ministerof agriculture part – believes although they are no more number 1 , says there is a enough emphasis as cocoa is the major source of their income where they  hit a million tones, in 2011 , now 850thousand  is the highest turn off of cocoa since its inception, he believes Ghana is still at the higher point of producing it ,and hope they will, believing internally coca is the most developed commodity institution in Ghana

Basically now Ghana has finally employ ways to tackle seed smuggling in order to regain the high rank it’s known of

This they do through increasing the price that they give to the farmers to encourage them, and finally they have embarked on mass spray of cocoa farms which is free

Sooner or later they believe they will reassume their first position as the industries is constantly growing as they are moving up compare to its production