Mr. Albert Akomaning, Birim Central Municipal Cocoa Officer, on Wednesday called for the regulation and control of activities of cocoa purchasing companies.
"The desire of some of the companies to buy even wet cocoa beans, had caused the increase in the stealing of the beans in most cocoa growing areas".
Mr. Akomaning urged farmers to keep to the advice given them by Cocoa Extension Officers on the use of cocoa fertilisers, if the desired result was to be achieved.
Mr. Akomaning, who was speaking in an interview with the GNA in Akim Oda in the Birim Central Municipality, called on cocoa farmers who benefited from the use of cocoa fertilisers, to pay for them to enable others also to benefit from the scheme.
He said his Unit would intensify its agro-chemical programmes, to increase cocoa production in the area.
He advised farmers to clear their bushy farms before spraying the cocoa trees in order to have a high yield, adding that, the swollen shoot virus disease was hampering the efforts of cocoa farmers.
Mr. Akomaning explained the modus operandi of mass spraying of cocoa and the practice of cocoa agronomy.
He appealed to traditional authorities to educate cocoa farmers to allow their infested cocoa trees to be cut down for replanting.
Mr. Akomaning stated that, if the affected cocoa farms were not cut down, the disease could infest other farms.
The newly planted farms in their environs, could even reduce the national yield, despite the efforts being made to increase cocoa yield.
He therefore, called on farmers to maintain their farms well and increase their acreage now that the crop was gaining attractive price.