The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has denied charges that it did not provide enough medical treatment to its contracted mass cocoa sprayers due to the toxicity of the agrochemicals.
This follows concerns voiced by the Ghana National Association of Cocoa Farmers regarding the health issues of some of its members, who claim to be suffering from blindness and impotence as a result of long-term use of agrochemicals.
However, in an interview with Citi News, Fiifi Boafo, the head of COCOBOD’s public relations department, stated that the board performs monthly medical checks on contracted farmers participating in cocoa spraying.
He denied the allegations, stating that the Cocoa Clinic has not seen such symptoms in any of the contracted sprayers.
“We find it a bit surprising to hear these complaints because these are not complaints that we are aware of.”
“Let me put on record that for the spraying of cocoa farms, COCOBOD hires over 57,000 people every year who help the farmers with the spraying of their farms across the country. These persons, at the end of every session, apart from the fact that COCOBOD Research Institute goes round the country and takes samples and does an evaluation of the spraying that is done for the farmers, we also take some of them to the Cocoa Clinic for examination. So allegations that some people are suffering impotency and blindness are not things that the Cocoa Clinic has identified.”
