The Government of Ghana has allocated 4.2 million cedis (US$1.5 million) for the rehabilitation of coffee farms in the country.
A four-year rehabilitation programme is being implemented by the Ghana Cocoa Board in collaboration with Cocoa Research Institute.
This was disclosed by the Director of the Cocoa Research Institute, Dr. Gilbert Anim-Kwapong when the Parliamentary Select Committee on Food, Agriculture and Cocoa Affairs visited some coffee farms in the Hohoe and Jasikan districts.
The Committee members visited abandoned coffee farms to determine how best the government could help the farmers to rehabilitate them or start new ones.
Dr. Anim-Kwapong said the farmers will be provided with free fertilizers, insecticides, improved planting materials, wellington boots and other extension services.
The farmers had complained of the lack of motivation and encouragement to boost their production. He said since the inception of the rehabilitation programme, a total of 930.2 hectares of old and unproductive farms representing 93 percent of the old farms have been rehabilitated.
According to him, a total of five thousand one hundred and five point 84 hectares of new coffee farms have also been established by selected communities in the Ashanti, Brong Ahafo, Western, Central, Volta and Eastern regions within the period.
The in-coming Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Food and Agriculture and Cocoa Affairs, Gabriel Kodzo Essilfie commended the coffee farmers for the efforts being made to revamp the industry.
He noted that within the next two year’s, the programme will be able to achieve its objective and give the farmers more income.
Source: http://www.myghanaonline.com/1.1722834
