The regulator’s deputy Chief Executive in charge of operations announced on Thursday, February 15, 2024, that Ghana’s COCOBOD will utilize a portion of a $200 million World Bank loan to restore farms damaged by the cocoa swollen shoot virus, which lowers yields and kills plants.
This West African nation, the second-largest producer of cocoa in the world after neighboring Ivory Coast, has seen its output of the cocoa drop as a result of the illness, which has destroyed over 500,000 hectares of farmlands.
The cocoa swelling shoot virus, aged plantations, illicit mining, and smuggling took a toll on the industry, causing Ghana’s output to fall to 600,000 metric tons last year from a peak of 1.048 million tons in the 2020–21 season.
According to a project information document, Cocobod will be able to finance the restoration of farms and further research into viral strains with the support of the counterpart funds and the $132.8 million loan that the government secured last year.
The nation’s economic turmoil and the board’s restricted funding, according to Cocobod’s Emmanuel Opoku, have hindered efforts. “The rehabilitation will take a minimum of five years to start getting economic production,” Opoku told Reuters.
In order to help sick cocoa trees grow to a fruiting stage and then return them to farmers, the board will take over disease-ridden fields, trim and replace them, and provide care.
However, Opoku stated that the program—which was initially intended to span 156,000 hectares of plantations—was engulfed in Ghana’s worst economic crisis in a generation, which resulted in skyrocketing inflation and a significant depreciation of the cedi.
More than 88,000 hectares of farmlands were benefited by the AfDB facility, he said, and 40,000 of those were prepared for return to farmers in “the coming days.”
The president of the nation’s Cocoa, Coffee, and Sheanut Farmers’ Association, Alhassan Bukari, told Reuters that since so many farmers were impacted, rehabilitation efforts needed to be vigorous.
