Young women in cocoa project
The Kuapa Kokoo Co-operative Cocoa Farmers and Marketing Union Limited (KKFU) has designed a special programme for young women to engage in cocoa farming as a source of livelihood and to sustain the industry.
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Dubbed ‘The young women in cocoa project’, it is to encourage young women to go into cocoa farming.
The acting Executive Secretary of KKFU, a cocoa-buying company, Mr Nelson Adubofour, told the 23rd Annual Delegates Conference of the union that with the support of Cocoa Health and Extension (CHED), it was able to obtain 4,879 cocoa pods and raise 76,300 cocoa seedlings for a pilot project that sought to empower the young women.
The seedlings were raised in five KKFU societies, namely Akontombra, Fosukrom, Ashanti Bekwai, Kasapin and Bibiani, for distribution to the women farmers, especially the young ones.
So far, 22 new farms covering 21.32 acres have been established, with KKFU facilitating the acquisition of the farmlands for the young ladies with an average age of 24.
He said plans were afoot to replicate the success story of the women in other parts of the country.
Child labour
Mr Adubofour said the union had put in place measures to stamp out child labour in cocoa-producing areas.
The acting executive secretary said the KKFU Child Labour Unit, through its five-year remediation plan, was committed to ensuring that children trapped in the canker were withdrawn and protected.
In line with this, KKFU, in conjunction with Millennium Promise Alliance, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), has developed a project dubbed ‘Kuapa Kokoo back to school project’, which seeks to introduce innovative local interventions to increase access, enrolment, quality and retention of children in schools in at least 12 cocoa-growing districts in Ghana.
Increase in production
The Managing Director of Kuapa KKFU, Mr Samuel Adimado, announced a target of 70,000 tonnes this year from 50,000 tonnes.
The Quality Control Manager of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Dr Isaac Yaw Opoku, announced that the board had secured an international loan of $1.3 billion to promote cocoa production in the country.
Beyond the loan and to enhance production, the COCOBOD, he said, had instituted measures to support farmers with high-yielding cocoa seedlings to keep the country’s image as producers of the world’s quality cocoa beans.
Fatima Ali
The President of the Farmers Union, Madam Fatima Ali, announced that the KKFU had become a member of the World Cocoa Foundation, an umbrella body for cocoa farmers, which creates a good platform for a partnership aimed at promoting sustainable cocoa production.
