Cocoa farmers will henceforth have direct access to fertilisers without needing to go through middle men as a result of an innovation devised by the Mahama administration enabled by mobile phones.

The e-wallet fertiliser distribution programme, according to President John Mahama, will beat down the price of fertilisers.

Speaking to party supporters at Amenfi West constituency in the Western Region, a predominantly cocoa farming area, the e-wallet fertiliser distribution programme will be piloted in "two cocoa-growing areas and later deployed nationwide.

Mr Mahama, who is running for re-election in the 7 December polls, said his administration has cocoa farmers at heart.

Ghana attained peak production of a little over one million metric tonnes of cocoa in the 2010/2011 crop year. Production has, however, fallen consistently since then, a situation that has exposed Mr Mahama and his administration to attacks from the main opposition New Patriotic Party.

Not too long ago, the NPP’s vice-presidential candidate, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia the 1,000,000 tonne production feat was a direct result of policies and projects (Mass Spraying and Hi-tech) initiated and implemented by the NPP administration. “With these twin projects cocoa production more than doubled in just two years, from 341,000 metric tonnes in 2001/2002 to 737,000 metric tonnes by 2003/2004; and then to one million metric tonnes in 2010/2011,’’ he noted.

In the 2014/2015 cocoa season, the output dropped to about 700,000 tonnes. The government failed to achieve an initial target of more than 1 million tonnes which had been revised downward to 850,000 tonnes.

The share of cocoa in GDP rose from 4.9% in 2000-2004 to 8.1% in 2005/2006. It accounted for 22.6% of AgGDP (with forestry and fishery) or 28.5 % (without forestry and fishery).



Source: Ghana/ClassFMonline.com