Manager at the Western South Cocoa Health and Extension Division (CHED) of Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Samuel Ankamah, has congratulated Cocoa farmers in the Western South and Central Regions for the massive pruning of their Cocoa farms.

According to him, pruning of Cocoa trees was one of the best cultural practices, which leads to bumper harvest of Cocoa.

Mr Ankamah made the commendation when he led officials of COCCOBOD in Accra to visit Cocoa farms to inspect pruning and educate farmers in the Western South and Central Regions.

The national pruning exercise of Cocoa farms will officially end on May 1, 2020.

Mr Ankamah encouraged Cocoa farmers to acknowledge the efforts of COCOBOD to streamline cultural practices in Cocoa farming.

He observed that all the cooperative farmers in the said Regions, embarked upon weeding, spraying and pruning activities and urged them to always allow sanitation to be sustained on their farms.

Mr Ankanah thanked the management of COCOBOD for supplying farmers with Cocoa spraying machines, standard pruners and slashers, which reduced the human labour involved in Cocoa production.

The Western South Manager said COCOBOD had supplied farmers with fertilizers and chemicals after pruning as a boost to flower formation.

He said the number of extension officers for last year was inadequate but the ratio had increased this year leading to pruning of larger portions of Cocoa farms.

Dr Emmanuel Nii Tackie-Otoo, Executive Director, Cocoa Health and Extension Division at COCOBOD said the team was quite impressed at the turn of events on Cocoa farms compared to previous pruning activities.

Deputy Chief Executive (DCE) in charge of Agronomy and Quality Control at COCOBOD, Dr Emmanuel Agyemang-Dwomoh said COCOBOD would continue to supply Cocoa farmers with standard pruning machines and other equipment as well as farm inputs to boost the morale of farmers towards increased productivity.

He noted that mechanised pruning was helping the farmers to prune their farms within a short period and was happy that all the farms the team inspected had been pruned effectively and asked the farmers to keep up the spirit.