The cocoa price has regained its value. All over the world demand for cocoa is continuing to grow. We are discovering new markets in Asia, in China. Consumption of cocoa products is going up in those areas so it means that there is a bright future for cocoa ahead of us. We need to rise up to the occasion, take advantage of it by producing more cocoa to meet the world market demand.

With this new price it becomes an incentive for us to look after our farms better in order to increase the productivity and then also to even expand our farms so that we can produce more of the cocoa. I want us to see cocoa farming as a business and not as a way of life. It must be a business that we go into for profit so that we can use the profit to invest and make our lives better.

The notion that it is only our grandfathers in the villages who are involved in cocoa farming must change. Young people can also go into cocoa farming and make a profitable life out of it. We have a lot of our young people who leave beautiful lands in the village and come here to the streets and are hawking dog chains and other such products. Yet if they invested just a little into an acre of cocoa farm I am sure that they will make much more money from that cocoa farm than they will make selling those things that they sell on the streets.

So with this incentive of the price increase it must be a motivation to people to go back home and invest in cocoa farming. I, myself, am motivated to come and look for some land somewhere. I was telling the Chief Executive that with this price I will also come to Eastern Region or Western Region somewhere and find some land or Volta Region and also start my cocoa farm to prepare for my retirement after 2020. If I start now by 2020 it will be bearing fully and I can retire comfortably on it.

Cocoa continues to be the mainstay of this economy. Every year we earn anything close to US$3billion on cocoa alone and yet people are more excited about oil. Ghana has discovered oil so our lives are going to change. Cocoa still affects our lives more than oil. The contribution of oil to our national budget last year was only US$700million. Cocoa brought US$3 billion into our economy. So cocoa is still the mainstay of our economy and we must put our money where our mouths are, and we must continue to put our money in cocoa farming so that it can continue to sustain this economy.

I want to commend the new board of COCOBOD and also the new very active and vibrant Chief Executive for some of the new innovations that he is introducing into the industry. I am sure that with those innovations, we are going to see even bigger production of cocoa.

We must not see the one million as a target. We must surpass the one million mark. It should become normal that we produce more than one million tonnes of cocoa in this country. It should not be a target from year to year we attain and then we fall back. Then we say, oh! next year we will get one million. It should be something that we regularly surpass- that we produce more than one million tonnes of cocoa in this country every year and we can do it if we put our minds to it. There are a lot of places where we can replant the cocoa. We have the cocoa rehabilitation programme where COCOBOD is providing the seedlings free of charge to our farmers. So let’s take advantage of it.

If cocoa trees are old and they are not producing again, just go to COCOBOD, take the free seedlings, cut down the old trees and then replant. It does not take long. In three years you will start harvesting something. Within 5 years, it will be bearing properly. And by God’s grace all of us will leave beyond 5 years.

I have received so many complaints about farmers not getting their bonuses and anytime I went around the country, the farmers were saying: "Our bonus; we have not been paid our bonus." This time, Gafili Gadochi. When you sell your cocoa, you get your payment for your cocoa and you collect your bonus at once. We will not say the bonus will come later and it never comes. That matter is done away with once and for all.

By John Dramani Mahama
President of Ghana.