The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has blamed the rejection of over $100 million worth of cocoa farm tools on a lack of consultation with farmers, criticising the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration for the unilateral procurement.
The tools, purchased in 2019, were rejected by cocoa farmers for being unfit for purpose.
Speaking on Eyewitness News on Thursday, March 12, Jerome Sam, Head of Public Affairs at COCOBOD, said the slashers and pruners procured were too heavy to be carried on the back and too short to reach the height of cocoa trees.
According to him, the procurement process completely bypassed the farmers who would ultimately use the machines.
“This clearly shows that no consultation whatsoever was made because if the farmer essentially was consulted, they would have given specifications as to how the machine should be made or the type of machine that they needed for their farming activity,” he said.
He further noted that COCOBOD management at the time failed to renegotiate or adjust the procurement to meet farmers’ needs.
“Ideally, after procuring the tools and having the farmers reject them, we could have arranged with the producers to renegotiate, perhaps return the tools or replace them with suitable ones. Unfortunately, management at that time did not see any reason or benefit to make such arrangements, and the equipment has been abandoned for several years now,” he added.
During a tour by the board members to some cocoa farms in the Eastern Region, they discovered Hundreds of boxes of pruners and slashers that have been abandoned at a COCOBOD warehouse at Bosuso in the Fanteakwa South District