A 45-acre cocoa farmer calls on government for support

The Executive Director of the Odonkor Farms has called on the government for support to extend his 45 acres of cocoa farm to a 1000 acres.

The Odonkor Farms is a family farm located in Tadieso in the Fanteakwa North District in the Eastern Region of Ghana. The farm consists of multiple farms produce like cocoa, plantain, cocoyam and cabbage. The visionary farmer, Mr. Odonkor Isaac Langmatey has recently added coconut and palm nuts to his range of farm products. Though he engages in other crop production, the farmer’s main focus is on cocoa. He has up to 45 acres of cocoa plantation. The farmer, however, has the intention of extending his cocoa farm to about 1000 acres of land.

“I really want to extend my cocoa farm to 1000 acres but I lack funds to support my big vision”, the farmer said.

He mentioned, “I will need support from the government to buy more land to be able to extend my farm as I wish”.

He also added that he would need to buy more machines to help him facilitate farming. He made mention of machines such as the harvesting machines, spraying machines, cocoa pod breaking machines and many more. The sensitive farmer also cares for better working conditions for his labourers.

“I need this many machines because as a farmer who has laboured for over forty years I need not be told how much my labourers are suffering, thus, to help ease their labour, the machines are very necessary to us.”, Mr. Odonkor said.

He added that owning a tractor would also go a long way to support him. Mr. Isaac Odonkor also cried bitterly about how bad the road network from his farm to the town is. He described that it is so bad that even cars cannot go there and if he had so much to take to town like bags of cocoa beans, transporting them becomes very difficult.

The farmer assured the government that if he is supported with enough funding, he will continue to work tirelessly more than he has ever done to ensure that he gets the best results. In the end, the farmer advised the youth to also engage themselves in agriculture since it is very lucrative.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Odonkor farms, Mr. Maxwell Odonkor added his voice saying, "Our long-term vision is to set up a factory in our village which will turn our well cared for cocoa beans into finished goods like; chocolate, cocoa drink, cocoa powder and many other cocoa products”.

“Through the AFCfTA initiative brought about by the International Trade Centre and the Africa Trade House we can easily export our finished goods to other African countries and beyond. This will not only give employment to the people of Tadieso and its environs but will also go a long way to boost the country’s revenue since these finished goods will also be exported to other countries.”, the CEO concluded.