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Ghana, the world's second largest cocoa producer has put in place a number of interventions and best agronomic practices which will almost double output of the chocolate ingredient within ten years.

Ghana's cocoa industry, touted as the nation's economic back-bone will receive a further boost in its average annual cocoa output to over 1 million tons from the current 800,000 tons, Noah Amenyah, Snr. Public Affairs Manager of the Ghana Cocoa Board, the regulator said in an interview in the capital, Accra.

Ghana, which lost its position as world's largest producer of the chocolate ingredient  to Ivory Coast, its West African neighbour due to factors including diseased tree stock has distributed over 120 million free high yielding hybrid seedlings to farmers in the last two years to re-cultivate old farms and replace aged trees.

``The execution of the interventions started with the cocoa farm rehabilitation programme which sought to eradicate diseased cocoa farms as well as old unproductive farms. Such cocoa trees are being cut and replaced with early bearing, high yielding and disease tolerant hybrid seedlings,'' Amenyah said.

In the current 2016/17 crop year, COCOBOD is again nursing 60 million hybrid seedlings in over 332 nursery sites across all the cocoa regions for free distribution to cocoa farmers. We expect to add an estimated 50,000 hectares of cocoa farms this year. Thus 500,000 hectares would have been established within the ten-year period,'' Amenyah stated.

It is worth noting however, that the COCOBOD's impressive efforts aimed at increasing production and creating sustainable jobs for farmers and the youth are being undermined by the activities of some business concerns and individuals both local and foreign.