Cocoa farmers in the Adansi North District of the Ashanti Region will receive an increment in premium price on certified cocoa beans from two institutions.
International cocoa trader and processor, Transmar Group, and Nestle Ghana are offering the package after increasing their fair trade premium by 20 per cent.
Farmers will get 12 Ghana cedis annually for each bag of cocoa sold during the main crop season.
The package is expected to improve incomes of farmers, reduce poverty and encourage them to adhere to best farming practices to improve and maintain the quality of bean .
Potential beneficiaries are excited about the offer they say will encourage them to work harder.
One of them, Kwasi Awuah believes the increase will benefit the cocoa production in the country.
He reveals with the increase, farmers will be positioned financially to expand their farms and also get the necessary inputs to increase yield.
He insists land tenure system has been the major challenge farmers in general face in their bid to expand farms.
“Now we have to fight over lands with galamsey people and it is bad.”
Officials of Transmer and Nestle Ghana presented GHS483,000 to farmers as premium for the 2015-2016 season.
Corporate Social Responsibility Manager for Transmer Group, Alexander Gyedu, reveals the group is embarking on several projects to help cocoa production.
He explains a mapping project is being embarked upon which will help the project team get the necessary information about the farm sizes of all farmers in the group. This will help the group plan interventions accordingly to benefit farmers.
“We have discussed with agro chemical companies, and through us they will supply chemicals to the farmers because there are too many fake products on the market.”
The group is taking measures to address the use of fake inputs in cocoa production.