The Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus (CSSVD) Unit of the Ghana Cocoa Board has handed-over 25 treated and replanted cocoa farms to their owners at Kyekyebiase in the Asante-Akim North District.
The Unit is engaged in a comprehensive rehabilitation and replanting exercise as part of efforts to tackle the cocoa swollen-shoot disease in the country.
At the handing-over ceremony at Kyekyebiase at the weekend, Dr. George Opoku, Ashanti Regional Manager of CSSVD noted that the programme was aimed at assisting farmers to increase crop yield and also protect non-infected cocoa trees from the virus.
This way, they would be helping to increase the income of cocoa farmers as well as the foreign exchange earnings of the nation.
Dr Opoku advised farmers whose cocoa trees have been attacked by the virus to co-operate with the unit to cut them down for replanting.
Mr Osei Wiafe-Akenten, Juaso District Cocoa Officer, said they were determined to check the disease, which had been attacking cocoa farms in the area over the years.
The Board has started mass spraying of the rehabilitated farms to prevent re-infection and had advised the beneficiary farmers to take good care of the farms.
Nana Antwiwaa Agyapah, Queen of Kyekyebiase, appealed for an extension of the exercise to include all identified swollen Shoot prone areas in the districts.
Nana Opepem Ababio, Chief of Kwakoko near Kyekyebiase, lauded government for the intervention and called for the provision of adequate spraying machines at subsidized cost to enable the farmers to spray their farms.