Government should have consulted cocoa farmers before passing bill – MP

The Ranking Member on Parliament’s Food, Agriculture and Cocoa Affairs Committee, Isaac Yaw Opoku, has criticised the government for passing the new cocoa legislation before adequately engaging key stakeholders, particularly cocoa farmers.

Opoku said the NPP supports the objective of the legislation but believes several provisions require review because of the way the bill was passed.

Speaking on the Asaase Breakfast Show on Monday (10 August), he said stakeholders should have been consulted before Parliament approved the legislation.

“We support the bill 100%, but we are not happy with the manner in which it was passed in haste,” he said.

His comments followed concerns from the Ghana National Cocoa Farmers Association (GNACOFA) that stakeholders were engaged only after Parliament had passed the bill.

Opoku said that sequence was inappropriate because cocoa farmers would be among those most directly affected by the new law.

“This law is going to affect farmers the most. We didn’t consult them before the passage. We passed the bill before you engaged them,” he said.

He said the concerns raised by the minority were not new and had been brought up during parliamentary consideration of the bill.

According to him, the minority had requested information on stakeholder consultations but believed the concerns were ultimately not reflected in the legislation.

Opoku said the NPP’s concerns included restrictions on the removal of cocoa trees, the registration of cocoa farms and provisions relating to the marketing of cocoa.

He maintained that the issue was not simply partisan, arguing that the legislation would affect the cocoa sector for years and therefore required broader consultation.

He also rejected the suggestion that the minority had failed to raise its concerns before the bill was passed.

“All these concerns, they were raised. We didn’t ask for a copy of the stakeholders’ engagement. There was none,” he said.

Opoku called for the President to return the bill to Parliament for further consideration.

He said the proposed amendments should include clearer provisions on the distribution of cocoa revenues, completion of cocoa farm registration before the registration requirement becomes a condition for selling cocoa, and changes to provisions governing external marketing and exports.

He said the objective should be to ensure that the new law protects cocoa farms while avoiding provisions that could create unnecessary difficulties for farmers.

AsaaseRadio