INVEST IN COCOA INDUSTRY, YOUTH TOLD (PAGE 3, OCT 7, 2010)

THE Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Mr Anthony Fofie, has urged the youth to consider the numerous opportunities in the cocoa industry and invest their resources in the sector to improve their livelihoods.
Mr Fofie said with the producer price of cocoa now at GH¢200.00, the youth would have much to gain if they invested in cocoa farming.
Addressing the 2010 Buem Congress at Teteman in the Jasikan District of the Volta Region last Saturday, he said COCOBOD was ready to assist the youth with all the resources at its disposal.
The Buem Congress, which is held on a rotational basis among the 23 communities in the Jasikan Traditional Area, was on the theme; “Revamping the cocoa industry in Buem — An Agenda for the Youth”.
To encourage the youth to venture into cocoa farming, the chief executive said seed gardens would be established at vantage points to sell hybrid seeds and seedlings to the youth at subsidised rates .
Mr Fofie said that Buem was once a vibrant cocoa producing area but due to bush fires and degradation of the soil, farmers had moved to other regions, leaving their lands behind.
On smuggling, he said it was a stumbling block in the country’s quest to attain the one million metric tonnes per annum target.
He said smuggling cocoa out made the country to lose a significant amount of foreign exchange, while the reverse of that compromised the premium quality of cocoa beans.
The chief executive, therefore, called for a collaborative effort to curb the menace, since several interventions put forward by the government and COCOBOD had failed.
Mr Barima Bonsi II, the Jasikan District Chief Executive, expressed satisfaction at the peaceful resolution of the long-standing chieftaincy dispute that hindered development in Buem.
He urged the youth to disabuse their minds of the perception that farming was the work of the uneducated, since both the educated and the uneducated could equally reap the benefits associated with farming.
Mr Isaka Buraima, the Chairman of the Coalition of Buem Congress, said the theme was premised on the fact that Buem had long lost its pride of place as a renowned cocoa-growing area, leading to poverty.