Farmers who engage children on their farms to be prosecuted

Mr. David Makam, District Quality Control Officer, said farmers who engage children in hazardous activities on their cocoa farms flout the laws of the land and would be prosecuted if caught.

He noted that potential graduates and leaders in cocoa growing areas often fell victim to child labour.

Mr Makam was addressing more than 150 cocoa farmers from all cocoa producing areas in the Dormaa Municipality and Dormaa-East District.

The Quality Control Company (QCC) in collaboration with the Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus Disease Control (CSSVD) Unit of COCOBOD in Dormaa, had organised an anti-child labour workshop for cocoa farmers in Nkrankwanta Cocoa district.

Mr. Makam explained that child labour was different from child work, which required that the child be taken through laid-down house-hold chores in their everyday life.

Mr. Edem Kobla Nutakor, Dormaa Municipal Officer of the CSSVD, appealed to cocoa farmers to protect the industry by abiding by its rules and regulations.

He stressed that parents had the responsibility to protect and defend the best interests of their children by ensuring that they received good education.

The Municipal Officer urged the Cocoa farmers to work harder to enable the country regain its position as the world’s leading producer and exporter of cocoa.

Opanin Yaw Adomah, acting chief farmer of Nkrankwanta, advised his colleagues to heed expert advice and cut down cocoa trees affected by the swollen shoot virus.

Mr. Addo Tabiri Asiahene, a renowned cocoa farmer, who presided, entreated his colleagues to form cooperatives to enable them to gain easy access to financial facilities from both government and other development partners.

Source: GNA