Ranking Member of the Food, Agriculture, and Cocoa Affairs Committee, Eric Opoku, is calling for a thorough investigation into the Cocoa Rehabilitation Programme initiated in 2018.
This programme aimed to identify diseased cocoa farms, remove affected trees, and replace them with disease-resistant cocoa varieties, among other interventions.
Mr Opoku contends that the programme has failed to achieve its objectives, citing the loss of approximately 500,000 hectares of cocoa farms to Swollen Shoot disease as evidence.
In an interview with Umaru Sanda Amadu on Eyewitness News on Citi FM, Mr Opoku emphasized the need for an inquiry into the rollout of the programme to ascertain the reasons behind this significant loss.
Furthermore, Mr Opoku alleged that the funds allocated for the programme have been fully expended, leaving cocoa farmers in a precarious situation.
“I am reliably informed that we have exhausted the amount earmarked for the rehabilitation, and COCOBOD will soon hand over the farms to the farmers, even though some farms have just been cut down and not even planted and provided with plantain suckers. Once we have exhausted the resources, they intend to hand over the farms, so if, at the time of handing over, the programme is escalating to this extent, then something is wrong somewhere, and we need to interrogate that,” he said.
Mr. Opoku expressed skepticism regarding the assurances provided by the Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD regarding the continuity of the Cocoa Rehabilitation Programme.
“The picture being created is very alarming, and I don’t believe in the assurances that the CEO is offering because we are in the field, and we know what is happening there,” he added.