The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has dismissed allegations of neglecting to provide essential medical care to its contracted mass cocoa sprayers in response to concerns raised by the Ghana National Association of Cocoa Farmers regarding the adverse health effects of agrochemical exposure.
Addressing these concerns, the head of the Public Relations Department at COCOBOD, Fiifi Boafo, clarified in an interview with Citi News that the board regularly conducts medical check-ups for contracted farmers engaged in cocoa spraying.
Contrary to the claims made by the cocoa farmers’ association, Boafo refuted the allegations, asserting that the Cocoa Clinic has not encountered any cases exhibiting symptoms such as blindness or impotence among the contracted sprayers.
“We find it a bit surprising to hear these complaints because these are not complaints that we are aware of.”
“Let me put on record that for the spraying of cocoa farms, COCOBOD hires over 57,000 people every year who help the farmers with the spraying of their farms across the country. These persons, at the end of every session, apart from the fact that COCOBOD Research Institute goes round the country and takes samples and does an evaluation of the spraying that is done for the farmers, we also take some of them to the Cocoa Clinic for examination.
“So allegations that some people are suffering impotency and blindness are not things that the Cocoa Clinic has identified,” Mr Boafo said.