Some genius in the New Patriotic Party (NPP), is reported to have stated that the NPP plans to allow private individuals, to export cocoa beans, as one of the reforms it intends to carry out in the cocoa sector, when it wins this November's presidential election.
Speaking as someone whose family farms cocoa organically, I feel duty-bound to sound a note of caution, in the national interest, to the Yaw Osafo Marfos, who are apparently keen to carry out 'reforms' in the cocoa industry.
The same 'reforms' carried out in the state energy-generating sector, only ended up virtually crippling the Volta River Authority - in the break-up of what hitherto had been a truly world-class power-generating and electricity grid-managing entity.
The cocoa industry is far too important a sector of our national economy, to be messed around with, by "book-long" neo-liberal politicians - ideologues who haven't the faintest idea of the effect their so-called free market 'reforms' have invariably had on the ground in the real world.
Has Singapore not become prosperous through well-thought-out state intervention, in vital sectors of its national economy?
Has that not enabled her to create powerful global class-leading biotech companies, for example, which leverage the results of research and development carried out by state-funded research institutions? And has it also not enabled her to attract virtually all the world's leading biotech companies to use Singapore as a manufacturing hub in Asia? Ditto its next door neighbour Malaysia - particularly with its agricultural sector?
Any attempt by neo-liberal ideologues in the NPP to break up the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) - if their party really does have such an intention, that is - and end the COCOBOD's near-monopoly in the export of cocoa beans, will inevitably lead to a sharp drop in the incomes of smallholder cocoa farmers, and see living standards plummet in cocoa-farming communities, across the forest belt, and other cocoa growing areas.
The only people who will end up benefitting from any such 'reforms' will be the fatcat crony-capitalist pals of our ruling elites. The national interest lies in maintaining the key role the COCOBOD plays in the industry.
Why do our greed-filled vampire-elites not know when to stop ripping-off Mother Ghana, I ask?
Some of us are beginning to tire of the unfathomable greed that seems to drive them. They are ruining our homeland Ghana with their selfishness and ruthless disregard for the well-being of our country and its people in their quest to amass untold wealth.
They must be careful - lest the pent-up anger of the masses of the Ghanaian people finally explodes. But I digress.
In spite of being overmanned and costing far too much to run - and being beholden to the vested interests that supply the industry's inputs - the COCOBOD does make a real difference to the well-being of smallholder cocoa farmers.
It has also ensured that Ghana continues to maintain its global reputation as the source of the best-quality cocoa beans in the world, for decades now. That is to be commended.
The cocoa industry ought not to be toyed with by feckless politicians under any circumstances - for it is Mother Ghana's very lifeblood.
What needs to be done, is to reduce the cost of running the COCOBOD, and make it a lean and nimble organisation - and get it to find a creative means of increasing yields of cocoa trees without enveloping them in a miasma of carcinogenic pesticides in mass-spraying exercises.
And depleted soils can be enriched in cocoa farms through the adoption of environmentally-friendly cultural practices, and sustainable farming methods, such as the regular use of compost and natural growth mediums.
Furthermore, it simply does not make sense to encourage farmers to keep piling on tonnes of synthetic fertilisers, to ameliorate the lack of nutrients in the soils of cocoa farms. Not when natural organic alternatives such as those produced by BioDeposit are available.
Since more and more people who consume cocoa products across the globe, are opting for organic cocoa products, perhaps increasing yields of organic cocoa trees, could eventually be achieved by switching to the use of highly effective natural foliar fertilisers and organic growth-mediums.
Indeed, this blog confidently predicts that using organic foliar fertilisers and organic growth mediums produced by companies such as the Latvian-domiciled BioDeposit, could help Ghana meet the illusive 1 million tonnes production target for cocoa beans, which it has aimed for, for so long, but is yet to achieve, unfortunately.
Incidentally, having personally tried their products, the COCOBOD would be wise to ask the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG), to work with BioDeposit, to get its products tested and approved for use in the annual mass-spraying of cocoa farms, which it sponsors in cocoa growing areas.
Initially, it will make Ghana the world's biggest producer of pesticide-free cocoa beans - from smallholder farms that could eventually be given organic certification: after the required 3-year conversion period has passed.
That could turn Ghana into a source of organic cocoa beans - and secure the local industry's long-term future.
If that happens, could giant supermarket chains from nations around the world, not be encouraged to source their own-brand, fairtrade organic chocolates, and other organic cocoa products, from Ghanaian cocoa processors such as the ailing state-owned Cocoa Processing Company?
For the COCOBOD's information SIAAO UK Limited holds BioDeposit's Africa regional agency. SIAAO's UK telephone number is: +447908111162. And its Ivory Coast number is: +22508999322.
Readers unable to get through to SIAAO UK Ltd for whatever reason, can also contact BioDeposit directly: Dr. Vladimir Dementjev, Tel: +371 29258676. Email: info@biodeposit.lv, website: www.biodeposit.lv, Skype: ehtengineering.
Incidentally, significantly, SIAAO UK Limited, is owned by the Ivorian businessman, Sow Abdramane, and plays an important role in the agricultural sector of the national economy of the Ivory Coast. Ditto that of the Republic of Cameroon.
Alas, I digressed yet again: So back to the topic of concern to this blog for our final words to the NPP as regards its agenda for Ghana's cocoa industry - if it actually has any, that is.
The time has definitely come for the NPP to clarify the reform agenda it has in mind for the cocoa industry. Any costly experimentation for ideological reasons will only end up decimating Ghana's cocoa industry. That will amount to sounding the death knell for our national economy. Literally.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment