The Minority in Parliament has criticised the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government of taking insensitive actions that have worsened the plight of cocoa farmers in the country.
It mentioned the discontinuation of contracts on 231 cocoa roads, the replacement of the free fertilisation programme with a subsidised arrangement and inadequate and discriminatory supply of chemicals to cocoa farmers as some of the insensitive actions taken by the government.
Cocoa roads
Flanked by his colleagues, Mr Opoku, who is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Asunafo South, said former President John Dramani Mahama rolled out a five-year cocoa road construction programme estimated at $750,000.
He said more than 230 cocoa roads selected from all the cocoa regions were awarded on contract for bituminous surfacing,
However, Mr Opoku said, on assumption of office in 2917, the NPP government directed all contractors working on the projects to suspend work.
Worse still, he said, no provision was made for cocoa roads in the Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) budget for 2017/2018.
“This means that the cocoa roads which are deteriorating faster than anticipated due to the neglect of the NPP government is going to get worse making users, mostly farmers, wretchedly despondent and low-spirited to continue to labour for our dear nation,” he said.
Mr Opoku said per Article 37:7 of the Constitution, the government was required to continue and execute programmes commenced by previous governments.
Fertilisation programme
Mr Opoku said the government defied advice by the NDC and scrapped the cocoa fertlisation programme and replaced it with with the subsidised arrangement under which a bag of fertiliser which was given to farmers for free now sold at GH¢80 in spite of its embossment of “strictly not for sale.”
He said checks from cocoa growing districts indicated that a sizable percentage of granular fertilisers were still in stores of the licensed buying companies (LBC) because cocoa farmers could not afford.
“The decomposition of the fertilisers in the stores would be a colossal loss to the state and the wisdom behind such actions cannot be comprehended.
“We are therefore urging government to act fast by reverting to the NDC/Mahama’s free fertilisation programme,” he said.
Mass spraying
Mr Opoku said farmers were not getting the needed quantity of chemicals to spray their farms under the cocoa mass spraying programme.
Besides, he said, mass sprayers had not been paid for the last four months while the programme was also over politicised and perceived NDC sympathisers were left out in the distribution of chemicals.
“The effect is that farmers are plunged into incessant difficulties,” he said.
Proceed on leave
Mr Opoku accused the government of asking 20 senior staff of COCOBOD to proceed on leave and replacing them with retired staff of COCOBOD.
“While on leave, they are paid all salaries and allowances due them at the end of every month,” he said.
Cocoa price
The Ranking Member on the Finance Committee of Parliament and former Deputy Minister of Finance, Mr Cassiel Ato Forson, said COCOBOD could have increased the cocoa price per bag from the current GH¢475 to about GH¢520 this year if it had used the money made available to it by the government well.
Cocoa farmer’s concerns
The cocoa farmers who spoke at the event asked the government to continue with the road projects in the area.
They also appealed to the government to ensure regular and adequate supply of chemicals.
Another request was for the government to revert to the former regime of free fertiliser distribution as they could not afford the GH¢80 charged currently.
