Government says it is reintroducing free fertiliser distribution for cocoa farmers and rolling out a new scholarship scheme for their children, in a bid to boost yields and support rural livelihoods.
Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson said on Monday that from the 2025/26 crop year, farmers will receive free fertilisers, insecticides, spraying machines, fungicides and flower inducers.
“The intervention is aimed at improving productivity and incomes,” Dr Forson told journalists in Accra, urging farmers to use the inputs solely to improve cocoa yields.
In addition, the government will establish a tertiary education scholarship scheme for children of cocoa farmers, with the first awards expected for the 2026/27 academic year.
The measures form part of a broader programme to strengthen the cocoa sector, which remains a key foreign exchange earner for Ghana.
The minister also announced that the Ghana Cocoa Board (Cocobod) will focus solely on its core mandate of supporting farmers and developing the cocoa value chain, ending its involvement in non‑core projects. All ongoing cocoa roads projects will be transferred to the Ministry of Roads and Highways.
Government, he added, was confident the new Cocobod leadership would “turn around the cocoa industry” and pledged continued support to ensure the sector “reclaims its lost glory as the mainstay of Ghana’s economy.”
