Hon. Dr Gideon Boako, Member of Parliament for Tano North, has supported cocoa farmers in the constituency with motorised spraying machines to help ease the burden of farm maintenance and improve productivity.
The presentation ceremony, held at the Duayaw Nkwanta in the Tano North Municipality of the Ahafo region, brought together cocoa farmer groups, traditional authorities, religious leaders, community members, and political representatives.
Among the dignitaries to support the initiative were the Minority Chief Whip and Member of Parliament for Nsawam-Adoagyiri, Mr Frank Annoh-Dompreh; the Member of Parliament for Offinso South, Dr Isaac Yaw Opoku; and the Member of Parliament for Ejisu, Kwabena Boateng.
The intervention, which involved the presentation of 84 motorised spraying machines to organised cocoa farmer groups, forms part of Dr Boako’s efforts to support farmers and improve their livelihoods through practical interventions aimed at addressing challenges confronting cocoa production.
Dr Boako, speaking at the ceremony, emphasised the important contribution of cocoa farmers to Ghana’s economy and stressed the need to provide them with the necessary tools and support to make their work easier and more productive.
“Cocoa farmers deserve better, and I am pleased to support them with tools to make their work easier and more productive,” he said. 
Dr Boako said the intervention was intended to address some of the difficulties farmers faced in accessing spraying equipment and to improve the timely maintenance of cocoa farms.
According to the beneficiary farmers, the entire Tano North Municipality previously had only 39 motorised spraying machines available to serve cocoa farmers, which they said was inadequate to meet the needs of farmers across the area.
They expressed optimism that the additional machines provided through Dr Boako’s intervention would significantly improve access to spraying equipment and enable farmers to undertake farm maintenance more efficiently.
The farmers expressed their appreciation to the MP for the gesture and pledged to take proper care of the machines to ensure that they served their intended purpose.
“This will help us a lot because access to spraying machines has been one of the major challenges facing cocoa farmers,” representatives of the beneficiary farmers said.
The MPs who attended the programme also used the occasion to raise concerns about the government’s policies towards cocoa farmers, particularly the producer price of cocoa.
The MPs criticised the government over what they described as a failure to meet campaign promises made to cocoa farmers ahead of the 2024 general election.
They said the National Democratic Congress (NDC), while campaigning for the 2024 elections, made promises to improve the price of cocoa, but that the subsequent reduction in the producer price had left many farmers disappointed.
They described the reduction in the cocoa price as a serious concern for farmers and argued that it could negatively affect the livelihoods of cocoa-producing communities.
The MPs urged cocoa farmers to carefully assess the government’s record and policies ahead of the 2028 general election.
