The cocoa swollen shoot virus disease (CSSVD) has destroyed more than 500,000 hectares of cocoa farms in the nation, according to Joseph Boahen Aidoo, the chief executive officer of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD).
He claimed that the nation’s cocoa production was seriously threatened by this. According to Boahen Aidoo, steps have been taken to address the problem and are still being taken.
The CEO revealed this during a panel discussion at the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) partnership meeting in Amsterdam, where he discussed the various difficulties Ghanaian cocoa producers face.
In addition to CSSVD, Boahen Aidoo emphasized the negative effects of climate change and illicit mining, which worsen the productivity decline in cocoa and seriously jeopardize the livelihoods of cocoa farmers.
“The growth of cocoa trees is negatively impacted by deforestation, soil degradation, and water pollution caused by the unregulated mining industry,” he stated.
He claimed that in addition to this threat, climate change was wreaking havoc on cocoa trees, which are extremely vulnerable to variations in temperature and precipitation.
According to Boahen Aidoo, extended droughts, erratic rainfall patterns, and rising temperatures are all having an impact on tree growth and yield.
He said that in order to address the CSSVD problem, COCOBOD launched the Cocoa Rehabilitation Programme in 2018. The program’s goals are to stop the disease’s spread, revive underperforming farms, and eventually raise the standard of living for cocoa growers.
The rehabilitation program’s tasks include locating sick farms, removing afflicted trees, replacing them with cocoa varieties resistant to disease, paying impacted farmers, and encouraging sustainable farming methods.
The CEO emphasized the significance of providing cocoa farmers with sustainable incomes, highlighting the Living Income Differential and the recent notable increases in Ghana’s Producer Price for cocoa farmers as critical developments in this area.
He stated that the industry as a whole needed to make a commitment to prioritizing the sustainable incomes of cocoa farmers and to take decisive action to make sure that goal was achieved.
The director general of Conseil du Café Cacao, Yves Brahima Koné, urged the industry to commit to resolving the issue right away, stressing that if it doesn’t, the industry may collapse under these difficulties.
