Embrace Cocoa Farm Rehabilitation Programme ..Assin Fosu District Cocoa Officer Urges Cocoa Farmers
Freeman Koryekpor Awlesu Greater 
The Assin Fosu District Cocoa Officer of the Cocoa Health and Extension Division(CHED), Mr. Isaac Sarfo Afram has stated that the primary aim of the cocoa farm rehabilitation program initiated by the government, which is to cut down and replant diseased and over-aged cocoa farms is to boost output and returns.
Addressing journalists, Mr. Afram admonished farmers to eschew the notion that cutting down disease-affecting trees and replanting them will take years to yield as Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has designed measures to support the farmers.
Some of the support include incentive packages, provision of hybrid and high-yielding seedlings, free supply of plantain suckers, etc. As the hybrid takes not more than 3 years to yield.
He stressed that farmers who allowed the rehabilitation of their farms are currently living testimony as they benefiting hugely.
He explained that the Swollen Shoot disease could affect the whole farm and spread to other areas of the farms if the disease affected cocoa trees remain as its impact is greater than cutting it down.
The government, through an African Development Bank (AfDB facility, has embarked on a program to rehabilitate all diseased cocoa farms as part of the efforts to increase cocoa production in the country.
Under the program, the government would cut down all cocoa farms affected by the Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus Disease (CSSVD) and replant and manage them for two years before giving them back to the farmers.
Every farmer is also to be supplied with plantain suckers to be planted with the cocoa seedlings and also paid a compensation of GH¢1,000 per hectare of the cocoa farm.
The government would also pay for the services of extension officers and laborers who would plant the seedlings and weed the farms for the next two years before handing them over to the farmers.
The old diseased cocoa trees would be replaced by high-yielding and disease-resistant and early maturing cocoa trees to help the government boost its cocoa production and also help the farmers to recover from the period of ‘inactivity’.
