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Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) is planting over 1.6 million forest trees in the 2020/2021 cocoa crop year on cocoa farms across the country , as part of its National Cocoa Rehabilitation Programme.
It is embarking on the rehabilitation programme to replace about 40% of the country’s cocoa tree stock which are either overaged or affected by the Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus Disease (CSSVD). The farms undergoing rehabilitation are being replanted with high yielding, early bearing and disease-tolerant hybrid seedlings developed by the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG).
For the 2020/2021 crop season, the Seed Production Division (SPD) of COCOBOD has produced 92 million seedlings for distribution to farmers across the country for planting. These are estimated to be planted on about 83,636.36 hectares of cocoa farms which include CSSVD treated farms, over-aged and moribund cocoa farms undergoing rehabilitation, filling of vacancies in existing young farms, among others.