The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has refuted claims of neglecting the medical concerns of contracted mass cocoa sprayers.
This comes in response to recent allegations made by the President of the Ghana National Association of Cocoa Farmers, Stephenson Anane Boateng, indicating that most cocoa farmers are experiencing loss of vision and sexual impotence due to prolonged exposure to agrochemicals.
In response to the concerns, the Head of Public Relations at COCOBOD, Fiifi Boafo, in an interview monitored by The Ghana Report on Citi News, revealed that the board regularly conducts medical check-ups for contracted sprayers.
He, therefore, denied the allegations, stating emphatically that the Cocoa Clinic has not observed such symptoms among 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 around 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”.
Meanwhile, Mr Boateng expressed concern over the lack of health facilities in cocoa farming communities.
“We do all the dirty work, but there’s no hospital for farmers to attend. Some of our members’ eyes are not functioning; others penises are not functioning,” he lamented.