Cocoa farmers schooled on climate change

A sensitisation workshop on climate change has been held for cocoa farmers at Hiawu-Besease in the Atwima-Nwabiagya South Municipality of the Ashanti Region to help sustain their trade.The training aimed at equipping the farmers with the requisite skills and knowledge that will help them to incorporate tree planting into cocoa production to help sustain the economic, social and environmental benefits, while helping to cut down the effects of climate change on cocoa and preserve the forest.It was organised by the Municipal Directorate of the Cocoa Health and Extension Division (CHED) of COCOBOD, under the Ghana Cocoa Forest Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation Plus (GCFREDD+) project, supported by the World Bank.They were taken through crop and soil management, increasing resilience, and establishment phase, among others.Mr Eric Amengor, COCOBOD Research Manager of the GFCREDD+ programme, explained the effects of climate change on cocoa production.He said reduced rainfall, pro longed dry season and drought, high temperatures coupled with pests and disease infestations, had had a devastating effect on cocoa production in the country.He urged cocoa farmers to adapt climate smart practices to avoid loses, adding that planting appropriate trees, especially the self-pruning ones such as 'Ofram' and 'Emire' at the right time, could protect the cocoa leaves while the tap-rooted ones could also save cocoa roots in their quest for nutrients from the soil.He said the implementation of the GFCREDD+ programme, which was being done in partnership with the Forestry Commission, was to help protect the forest since cocoa and the forest were inter-dependent.Nii Kotey, the Municipal Cocoa Officer, urged the farmers to practice what they had learnt to help increase the yields in their farms and thereby improve their incomes and livelihoods.He urged the farmers to strengthen advocacy against illegal mining, illegal tree felling and sand winning which were destroying cocoa farms in the country.A total of 1,000 seedlings of the 'Ofram' tree species, were freely distributed to the farmers for panting to provide permanent shades in their farms to enhance the growth and protection of cocoa trees.Source: Ghana News Agency