COCOBOD VOWS TO ELIMINATE CHILD LABOUR (BACK PAGE)

GHANA COCOBOD says it is determined to eliminate the worst forms of child labour in the cocoa sector throughout the country.
Addressing a farmers rally at Likpe Bala in the Hohoe Municipality last Tuesday, a Senior Research Officer of COCOBOD, Mr Paul Ntim, said in that effort, COCOBOD was collaborating with International Cocoa Initiatives (ICI) to build the capacity of some media personnel and COCOBOD field staff to deal with issues of child labour.
He announced that over 300 field staff and Licensed Buying Companies (LBCs) have so far been trained in that regard.
He added that cocobod had also started a rigorous radio educational programme on child labour with 13 selected FM stations to create awareness and sensitise communities to ensuring that children were not exploited and abused in the production of cocoa.
Examples of cases of child labour, he cited, included taking children under 18 years out of school to work on cocoa farms, and heaping heavy loads on the heads of the children.
He said with such initiatives, COCOBOD had seen effective results, especially through the use of the local languages on the 13 selected radio stations.
This, he said, was part of the national programme for the elimination of worst forms of child labour by 2011, adding that the programme was crucial to the development and growth of the country.
On the quality of cocoa, he urged farmers to ferment their cocoa for six days, dry them well so that the standard set by Ghana on the world market would be sustained.