By Lord de-Graft Aikins, GNA
Anum Apapam (E/R), Oct. 26, GNA – Nene Ashaley Adjabeng, Chief Farmer for Anum Apapam in the Ayensuano District, has said it is a criminal offence to tamper with weighing scales used in the cocoa sector.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency shortly after a farmers’ quarterly meeting at Anum Apapam in the Eastern Region, Nene Ashaley Adjabeng said any Cocoa Purchasing Clerk caught cheating cocoa farmers by adjusting their scales would face the full rigours of the law.
The meeting also discussed mass cocoa spraying exercise, fermentation and welfare of the farmers.
Nene Ashaley Adjabeng, also the Ga Dangbe Chief for the area, said Cocoa Purchasing Clerks have often taken advantage of farmers through the manipulation of their weighing scales despite several warnings by the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA), the sole mandated enforcement agent on weighing scales in the country.
The Chief Farmer said in the wisdom of the government, replacing the “old bar weighing scales” with modern “clock type scales” which are easy to read, is a move aimed at assisting the farmers to have their produce accurately weighed so as to avoid cheating.
He said to avoid cheating, farmers should adhere to the guidelines given them by cocoa extension agents, to practice the seven-day fermentation period and allow the beans to dry well.
This, he said, would also drastically reduce the incidence of defects like purple and slate in the beans.
He urged his colleague farmers to embrace the mass cocoa spraying exercise introduced by government saying embracing the mass cocoa spraying exercise, would help farmers to increase their crop yields.
He said the programme is a testimony of government’s determination to help improve the cocoa industry, in order to reduce poverty among the farmers.
The Chief Farmer expressed concern that some cocoa farmers failed to allow their farms to be sprayed, although the cocoa were infested with the capsid virus that destroys cocoa beans.
He said Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) was increasing the spraying machines in the various cocoa growing areas to enable the spraying gangs reach every farm, with a view to combat the capsid virus.
Nene Ashaley Adjabeng said COCOBOD “the over-lord” of Ghana’s cocoa industry has a commitment to ensure that its administration does not only offer cocoa farmers with income, but also contribute to sustaining their farms and livelihoods.
He described the upward adjustment of the new cocoa producer price for the 2019/2020 cocoa season by the Producer Price Review committee of the COCOBOD as woefully inadequate adding: “We were expecting an upward adjustment of GH¢ 600 from GH¢ 475 per bag of cocoa beans”.
GNA
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