Cocoa farmers in the Bono East Region have appealed to the government to plan ahead of the proposed pension payments for them.
The appeal was made when the Techiman Cocoa District Officer, Mr. Frederick Aboagye, toured some cocoa farming communities in the region.
According to them, Ghana accrues most its revenue from cocoa produced by the farmers, but unfortunately, the state has over the years failed to institute any good packages for the farmers.
“Ghana gains a lot of money from our toils, yet we live almost miserable lives as cocoa farmers,” the farmer said.
To him a pension package for cocoa farmers in the country was the most appropriate initiative to encourage more people into the cocoa farming business.
A cocoa farmer at Krobo in the Techiman North District, Kwabena Ntim, commended the government for the free supply of the cocoa seedlings.
Recently, Mr. Kwame Baffoe (aka Abronye DC), Bono Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, announced that the government is to register cocoa farmers of 65 years and above under a pension scheme for them to receive monthly pension pay for a more bearable and comfortable livelihood till death.
Mr Baffoe said this when he addressed a press conference organised by the party at Abesim, near Sunyani.
The announcement was to debunk some alleged claims against the government by ex-President John Dramani Mahama, the National Democratic Congress presidential candidate for Election 2020, during his recent visit to the Western North and Ahafo regions as part of his nationwide “Speak out Tour”.
Mr. Baffoe stated that plans were far advanced to set up that initiative which would motivate and improve the living conditions of cocoa farmers, whose immense contributions to the agriculture sector, as the backbone of the country’s economic development, could not be overemphasised.
He mentioned that the government was committed to improving the road network in the country to ensure the free movement of goods and services to boost socio-economic development.
Mr. Baffoe said: “It is false that contractors with genuine claims about their contracts issued by the previous government are not being paid.”
He said since the assumption of office of the government to date, GH¢1,181,099,383.55 had been paid to cocoa roads contractors, and urged all to support the government’s initiatives and policies for speedy national development.
Meanwhile, the Bono East Regional Directorate of Agriculture has started switching farmers’ attention to crop production technology to increase their crop yields.
The Regional Director of Agriculture, Madam Cecilia Kegya, addressing peasant farmers at Jema in the Kintampo South District, said climate change had brought to the fore the need to draw farmers’ attention to improved crop varieties for cultivation.
She urged farmers to adapt to new technologies to improve farming.
The post Cocoa farmers in Bono East appeal for pension package appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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