Minority propaganda on cocoa falls flat

General News of Sunday, July 28, 2019

Source: dailyguidenetwork.com

2019-07-28

The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has been desperate to advocate for some innovative interventions in the cocoa sector and to project President Akufo-Addo as not doing enough to improve the lives of cocoa farmers.

It will be recalled that a recent press conference of the parliamentary minority led by Eric Opoku, the titular member of the Parliamentary Special Committee on Food and Agriculture, had highlighted a number of interventions according to which the administration of the former Mahama government had been put in place to improve the economic situation of the country. cocoa sector.

He also pointed to a number of failures of the new Patriotic Party (NPP) government led by President Akufo-Addo in the cocoa sector.

The press conference of July 25, 2019 was made necessary by the recent challenge launched by President Akufo-Addo to the former Mahama government to appoint one of its policies to increase the production of cocoa.

According to the minority, President Akufo-Addo would have been either misinformed about his alleged past history in the cocoa sector vis-à-vis former President Mahama and the NDC, or that he was simply mischievous and not very sincere with the facts about Ghana. cocoa sector.

policies

The minority listed free fertilization of cocoa farms, free distribution of cocoa seedlings to cocoa farmers, construction of solar-powered boreholes, schools and roads in cocoa growing areas, among others. .

She also mentioned the lifting of 50 million hybrid cocoa plants during the 2014/2015 cocoa season among the interventions.

According to the minority, the above-mentioned interventions have contributed significantly to boosting cocoa production under Mr. Mahama's regime.

"First, the NDC under President Mahama introduced the policy of free fertilization of cocoa farms in 2013/2014 and repeated it in 2015 and 2016 to boost cocoa production," he said. -he declares.

The minority added that "this revolutionary program has allowed Ghana to achieve its second highest annual cocoa production with 969,000 metric tons for the 2016/2017 cocoa season under the chairmanship of President Mahama, as stated in paragraph 403 of its own. 2018 budget of the PNP.

"Compare this sterling record with the current situation under the Akufo-Addo regime, which is extremely inadequate and extremely underperforming, where annual cocoa production fell to 904,000 in the 2017/2018 season, as indicated in paragraph 524 of the 2019 budget declaration, "according to the minority. .

Allegation

On the issue of auditing "ghost" cacao roads under Mahama's administration, the minority claimed that "the Akufo-Addo government managed to waste millions of taxpayers' money on audits illegally and not sanctioned by the Auditor General ".

According to the minority, "we know that $ 10 million was donated to one of those private audit firms illegally acquired and owned by a member of the Akufo State Board. Addo. At the appropriate time, we will put at the disposal of the Ghanaian People's Government.

However, it turned out that the majority of claims put forward by the NDC, in particular the volume of cocoa production during the party's term, were false.

According to COCOBOD, only 2 million Gh ¢ were used for the audit and not 10 million dollars.

The cocoa-based fertilizer application project, dubbed Hi-Tech, was an initiative of the Ghana Cocoa Research Institute (CRIG) in the late 1990s.

Specifically, a certain Dr. R. Appiah, a CRIG soil scientist, would be the mastermind behind this project, contrary to the minority claims that it was introduced under the Mahama regime or the NDC.

As a result, Cashpro, a former BLC badociated with the NDC, introduced it on a trial basis to its farmers in 1999.

The administration of former President Kuffour, in 2003, after observing the benefits of the mbad spraying exercise introduced in 2001, adopted state-of-the-art technology on a pilot basis and strengthened it domestically in 2006 .

"It is therefore inaccurate for NDC to claim that the Hi-Tech project is his baby," said a cocoa scientist who pleaded for anonymity.

"This project was implemented on a grant basis from 2006 to 2014, when the Mahama government decided to distribute fertilizer for free, mainly to its members."

It is common knowledge that during the 2014-2016 period, fertilizer quantities were provided to privileged farmers and non-farmers, while a large majority of farmers did not receive not a single bag of fertilizer, according to the scientist.

When he took office in 2017, it appeared that "non-for-sale" fertilizers had been smuggled out of the country, mainly to neighboring countries in Ghana and elsewhere, it was reported.

It is also alleged that such fertilizers were sold on the open market in countries such as Cameroon.

The administration of Akufo-Addo has decided to return to the original policy of subsidizing fertilizers so that interested farmers can obtain the required quantities on the "free market".

This policy is based on the fact that the funds used to purchase these fertilizers come from the sale of cocoa and it is therefore prudent to ensure that the inputs are made available to all interested farmers, instead of distributing them free of charge for the benefit of a few users. privileged once who were connected to governments in power.

According to the allegations that the decline in production would result in the importation of beans by local processors, records show that Ghana recorded its highest level of local cocoa processing under Akufo-Addo in 2017/18, with more than 310 000 tonnes of cocoa processed.

The most recent data shows that 179 948 tonnes of cocoa have been supplied to local processors to date and that the season is still in progress.

Importing beans for local processing has been a part of COCOBOD's policy over the years and is not new, a source said in response to the NDC's claims on nature.

"It should be noted that local processors have obtained authorization to import a total of 15,000 tons in 2013 and 20,000 tons in 2015, all under the authority of President Mahama."

According to sources, "the mismanagement of the sector in the era of President Mahama is perceived as a situation in which Ghana could not provide enough beans to meet its contractual obligations vis-à-vis external and local buyers of 117,838 tonnes and 72,371 tonnes respectively in 2015/16 agricultural season. "

With regard to the free distribution of hybrid cocoa plants, it became apparent that since 2004, planting material – seedlings and pods – were provided free of charge to farmers.

The effective use of seedlings is in rehabilitation programs and that is what has been adopted now.