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The staff of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) in the Ashanti Region have been urged to ensure the successful implementation of the Cocoa Management System (CMS), which is an integrated data management platform on cocoa farmers and other stakeholders in Ghana’s cocoa sector.

The call was made by Dr Emmanuel Nii Tackie Otoo, Executive Director of the Cocoa Health and Extension Division (CHED) of COCOBOD. He made the call at a workshop held at the Ashanti Regional capital, Kumasi, for staff in the region.

He indicated that the acquisition of reliable data is critical to the growth of the cocoa sector, hence, the need for all to embrace and work towards the successful implementation of the system.

The Senior Public Affairs Manager of COCOBOD, Mr Fiifi Boafo advised staff to engage the relevant persons and groups in cocoa communities and sensitize them on the numerous benefits that farmers, in particular, and all stakeholders in general, will derive when the system becomes fully operational.

“There is the need to effectively engage with all stakeholders, clear every misconception about the CMS and provide the necessary feedback for a more effective system”, he said.

Mr Boafo also indicated that the local media, cocoa farmer cooperatives and community information centres, as well as, opinion leaders will be engaged to propagate the need for all to register.

Sensitization on the Cocoa Management System has begun in the region and is soon to be followed with the mapping of cocoa farms and enumeration of cocoa farmers in order to give them unique identification (ID) cards.

A farmer’s ID card will hold information about the farmer and his/her farm. It will facilitate the sale of cocoa beans, access to farm inputs, subsidies and other support services from COCOBOD.

The cocoa management system will also help with the traceability of cocoa which has become a major international issue, with sourcing countries raising ethical issues on child labour and deforestation.