The Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah says government will on Friday, October 4, 2019, launch the Cocoa Forests Redd Plus Programme in Accra.
The Cocoa Forest Redd Plus Programme is aimed at promoting a climate smart cocoa regime in Ghana.
The interventions are led by COCOBOD, Forestry Commission, World Cocoa Foundation, CSOs in the cocoa industry as well as other industry players.
Climate smart cocoa is the production of cocoa without forest degradation adopting methods that would rather enrich the vegetation cover and nature.
At a Press Briefing in the Upper East Regional Capital , Mr. Nkrumah disclosed that through the programme, cocoa farmers will be supplied with seedlings of Indigenous tree species to plant per acre.
Farmers, he added, will also be encouraged to desist from tree felling but instead nurture the trees to provide cover for their cocoa farms.
The Information minister further indicated that farmers will also be supported to register farm trees on their farms to enable them to have ownership and bargaining rights against timber merchants.
“The combination of these interventions is expected to motivate cocoa farmers to lead the charge in providing vegetation cover for the cocoa industry. This associated with the other interventions in the sector should lead to more sustained cocoa farming and its attendant benefits to both farmers and the economy in general. It is also expected to give a major boost to the climate protection agenda.” he said.
The launch of the programme will mark the beginning of the full roll-out and cocoa farmers nationwide are expected to take advantage of it.
