Kuapa Kokoo launches five-year sustainability development plan

The Kuapa Kokoo Cooperative Farmers and Marketing Union Ltd (KKFU), a cocoa farmers union, has launched a five-year sustainability development plan aimed at improving the income of its farmers and also safeguarding the environment and sustaining cocoa production in the country.

The plan was to assist the members to sustainably produce cocoa without causing harm to the environment and also adding value to the crop to improve on their income.

As part of the plan, the union would establish a cocoa processing company in the country and it is a partnership between the KKFU and International Trade Union.

The president of the union, James Agyekum Kwarteng announced this at the 30th Annual Delegates Meeting held in Kumasi. It was under the theme: ‘Promoting Value Addition and Diversification to Improve Farmer Income.’

He admitted that some of the farmers were lured by the easy money made by cocoa farmers who leased their lands out to small-scale miners and were tempted to join the fray.

He said the leadership had to quickly intervene to change the situation, “we made them understand that the cocoa business was better than illegal mining which destroys the environment and farming activities.”

Mr Kwarteng said protecting the environment and sustaining cocoa production in the country was paramount and nothing would lure the members of the union into illegal mining operations.

Consequently, the members of the union have resolved not to lease out to their farm lands for gold mining.

For his part, the Executive Secretary of Kuapa Kokoo, Solomon Boateng said as part of activities aimed at strengthen the operations of the union, KKFU would build the capacity of the staff and the farmers to enhance governance, adopt best cocoa farming practices to improve productivity and support interventions to eliminate child labour in cocoa production.

In the last cocoa season, he said the union distributed a total of 1,035,000 cocoa seedlings to 4,140 farmers across the Kuapa Kokoo zones.

He said some of the ongoing sustainability projects included the ‘Way To Go’ project, aimed at improving the socio-economic conditions of smallholder farmers and the Sankofa project which has established agroforestry farms and engaged over 2,500 members in climate smart cropping systems among others.

Mr Boateng was optimistic that with the implementation of the various mechanisms and dynamic strategies, Kuapa Kokoo would achieve their aim of becoming an excellent choice in cocoa production.

The Managing Director, Emmanuel Arthur on his part, commended the government for the recent cocoa price increase, which has contributed to the reduction of cocoa smuggling in the country.

“Now famers prefer selling the cocoa to us due to the good price instead of smuggling it to neighbouring countries and this will help the government”, he added.

On galamsey, the Managing Director urged government and all stakeholders to find a lasting solution to the menace, which he said was affecting cocoa production and destroying water bodies in the country.