Government has been asked to commit more resources into researches that can assist coconut farmers to produce in large quantities and add more value to their products for both local and international market. A Research Scientist at the Oil Palm Research Institute, Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Mr. Albert Osei Bonsu, who made the call, said this is one sure way to tackle poverty in coconut growing areas where the threat of the Cape St. Paul wilts coconut disease, lack of capital and ready market, and poor pricing is gradually crippling the sector. He however bemoaned what he described as farmers over-reliance on one single product, the coconut oil, which is also not commercially viable due to its poor quality. Mr. Osei Bonsu said CSIR has introduced the Virgin Coconut Oil Technology and is ready to assist coconut farmers to use the technology to produce quality and marketable oil once Government assists farmers to acquire the equipment. Speaking to Radio Maxx at a forum organised in Takoradi by Kexlan Ghana Limited for coconut farmers, he said it was high time farmers derived all other commercial benefits from the coconut tree. “Even in the coconut oil, we have acids that are used to treat HIV/AIDS. So if we look at that potential, we can engage the pharmaceutical industry and the cosmetic industry because there is also Vitamin E in coconut. But depending on the processes, you may end up destroying the constituents and that is why the CSIR method is appropriate” he noted. “So if you have that high value product, then the coconut farmers can earn more and they can better maintain their farms and sustain the coconut industry. The problem has been knowledge gap. They don’t know how to process the virgin oil. There are other products like yoghurt, coconut sugar, toddy and geo textiles. But with all these, the technology is absent in Ghana so Government can assist CSIR to research into all these, and when we are able to do this, we can deploy the technology to coconut growing communities so that they produce more products, diversify their income source, and get more money to sustain the industry and also put themselves out of poverty” he explained.