Coffee cultivation picks up country wide

Ghana’s coffee industry is gradually picking up as a result of the Revamp Coffee Project (CRP) launched by the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) in 2011.

Since the project started, more than 2,000 hectares of land have been cultivated by coffee farmers throughout the country.

Last year, 2,500 metric tonnes was realised from coffee farms which had a target yield of 10,000 metric tonnes within two years.

The country’s coffee industry collapsed totally with some of the farmers destroying their coffee plantations and using their land for maize cultivation because it was difficult for them to get buyers.

Inauguration of Coffee Farmers’ Association

The Deputy Director of Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG), Tafo in the Eastern Region, Dr George Opoku, made this known when he inaugurated the Dormaa Area Coffee Farmers’ Association (DACFA) at Dormaa Ahenkro in the Brong Ahafo Region last Wednesday.

The Dormaa area, which currently has a total of 900 hectares out of the 2,000 hectares of coffee cultivated under the CRP nationwide, has thus become the hub in the effort of the COCOBOD to revamp the coffee industry.

About 100 farmers are involved in the effort to revamp the coffee industry in the country.

The DACFA is the first coffee farmers’ association to be formed in the country.

Revamp Coffee Project

Under the project, registered farmers are given free seedlings after they have prepared their lands and are assisted by agriculture extension officers to plant the seedlings.

The farmers are also given financial assistance (weeding incentive) quarterly, as well as cutlasses and wellington boots to help them to maintain their farms.

Dr Opoku said besides the incentive being provided by COCOBOD, coupled with the ready market, the farmers had been attracted to coffee cultivation because it was planted on less fertile land, unlike cocoa.

Dr Opoku, therefore, urged the youth to venture into coffee cultivation to make a living since the coffee industry had a great future.

On the formation of the association, he said their membership would enable the coffee farmers to have easy access to loans, in addition to ensuring that inputs provided under the CRP reached the right people.

Coffee farmers’ response

The Chairman of the association, Mr Kissinger Agyeman, thanked COCOBOD for the measures it had taken to revamp the coffee industry.

“We are happy that coffee farmers are now being assisted to cultivate new farms with improved seedling which can give us better yield soon to improve our living conditions,” he said.

Two truckloads of fertilisers, wellington boots and cutlasses, were distributed to the farmers after the inauguration of the association.