Voacanga production; Money making machine abandoned by Ghanaians

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“Voacanga production is very profitable it can fetch a lot of money even more than Cocoa,” Mr. Ewur Daniel a member of A Rocha Ghana said on Radio 1’s ‘Our Land Our Program’.

Confirming this on the same program a farmer added that some years back Voacanga was more profitable than cocoa.

“Voacanga was very profitable it can fetch you a lot of money more than cocoa but the price now is not encouraging so I have even stop the production,” he said.

Touching on the need to produce more Voacanga, Mr. Ewur Daniel said most of the exporters turned to Ghana for it, which make it very profitable than cocoa.

“Most of the whites turned to Ghana for Voacanga which makes it very profitable, but they later turned to Côte d’Ivoire,” he stated.

When asked my the host why Ghana lost the selling right he said “The seeds are similar to our red gravels so in other to the quantity and get more money, the buyers gradually turned away.”

“A Rocha Ghana is now working on new buyers to bring back the market to Ghana, so we are urging all the farmers to continue with the production and produce more, this time we will be assured with quality.” he said.

According to research Voacanga plants have been used in the treatment of leprosy, diarrhea, and generalized edema, convulsions in children as well as to treat cases of orchitis, ectopic testes and gonorrhea.

Pharmaceutical companies in Europe extract tabersonine from the seeds, which is readily converted into vincamine, a compound widely used in medicines for geriatric patients. Seed extracts are also used in medicines to treat heart diseases, to lower blood pressure and to treat cancer.

This make it a high demand commodity with a lot of money if produced well.

Voacanga ( )b) na wa in Twi) is a small tree up to 6 m (20 ft) tall with a spreading crown. The leaves are in opposite pairs, dark glossy green above and paler green below. The white or yellow flowers are in small bunches borne either in leaf axils or at the end of shoots. The spherical, dark green fruits, dappled with paler green, grow usually in pairs and contain seeds embedded in a yellow pulp.

Source: RadioOneGhana.com/ Michael Agyapong Agyapa/2022