Poku Kyei, former Coordinator for Cocoa Affairs at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning during the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration, has lauded the Mills government for the upward review of the producer price of cocoa. In an interview with Adakabre Frimpong Manso on Adom Dwaso Nsem on Wednesday the former Cocoa Coordinator was quick to hail the intervention as appreciable and said it would motivate farmers to increase production and also attract the youth into agriculture. He said the new price which, is a bit higher than what is being paid to farmers in Ivory Coast, will help check the perennial problem of smuggling of cocoa beans to the Ivory Coast by Ghanaian farmers in search of better price. Meanwhile some farmers who spoke to Adom Dwaso Nsem expressed their appreciation to the government for the bold intervention. A farmer, Opanyin Kofi Nketia, from the Juaboso district, couldn’t hide his joy and was full of praise for the government. “We are very grateful to the government for this significant increment from GH¢1,632 per tone. We believe it will encourage more people to go into cocoa farming and also increase their farm sizes,”. He posited. COCOA farmers in the country were yesterday handed a new producer price .The new price of GH¢ 200 per 54-kilogramme bag of cocoa represents a 33.3% per cent increase over the previous price. In effect, the new price, which takes effect on 1st October, will earn the Ghanaian cocoa farmer GH¢3200 per tone of cocoa, which is 75.15% per cent of the world selling price. Story: Kojo Addo/ADOM FM