Cocoa hand pollination boosting production

Averagely, a cocoa tree produces 1,000 flowers every season, yet only five per cent of the flowers grow into pods. Compared with other countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia, which produce 2 tonnes of cocoa per hectare, Ghana produces only 0. 45 tonnes of cocoa per hectare.

The hand pollination introduced by the government through dynamic CEO of COCOBOD is among the many interventions to reach the targeted production levels.

The artificial hand pollination project which aims to increase cocoa yields was launched in 2017. The project is being carried out in all the 6 cocoa growing regions.

This initiative became necessary due to the depletion of the natural pollinators causing reduction in cocoa yields. This initiative adopted by COCOBOD, has seen massive success as a single cocoa tree is producing 800 and 1,200 pods.