Stop deceiving Cocoa farmers Cocobod – Samuel Abdulai

Deputy ranking member of Parliamentary committee on Agric, Hon. Samuel Abdulai Gyabayietey, has debunked the Cocobod claims on minority press conference on cocoa price, subsidies of fertilizer programme to Cocoa farmers by the government. According to him, authorities of Cocobod should stop deceiving cocoa farmers , because the policy is never true.

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Minority Caucus in Parliament in a press conference yesterday urged Mr Joseph Boahen Aidoo, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana COCOBOD not to interfere in fixing producer price for cocoa farmers. According to the minority- NDC, the CEO is not “clothed with the mandate to determine the producer price of cocoa for farmers, Also government policy on subsidising cocoa fertilizer is never true and there is  enough  money to pay bonuses for cocoa farmers.

Mr Aidoo is reported to have announced in a radio discussion in Accra on June 8, 2017, “to the effect that producer price of cocoa would not be increased and farmer would not be paid bonus for the 2017/ 2018 Cocoa Season, because the World market price has fallen.”

But speaking on Radio 1 breakfast show, ”Susubribi” with host Captain Kofi Owusu, Hon. Samuel Abdulai said, the funding for free fertilizer for cocoa farmers is from the coffers of cocoa farmers so don’t see the reason why they should paid for it before assessing the fertilizer for their cocoa farms.

According to him, the farmers have already paid for the 2016, 2017 free fertilizer for cocoa programme, so where from that policy of subsidy. If there could be any policy, it should be 2018, 2019. not 2017. He challenged Cocobod to come out and tell the whole nation, money left in the coffers of  cocoa fertilizer programme.

”I am challenging the CEO of Cocobod to come out and say that, what the NDC is saying is never true, and the amount of money left in the coffers for free cocoa fertilizer programme, the fertilizer meant for cocoa farmers are not distributed freely to them, but it is from their coffers, so if someone should come and tell you that, this year we won’t give you but we want to subsidise it instead for you, then it seem the person is ”cutting part of your body to sell it to you to replace it”, so if, it is the government policy to cancelled or subsidise free fertilizer to cocoa farmers, then it should be 2018, 2019 not 2017.” he stated.

Source; radiooneghana.com/ Adjanor Andrews.