IN June, 1938, the British Colonial Administration established a research institute, the Tafo Central Cocoa Research Station, in the then Eastern Province (Eastern Region) to research primarily into cocoa production.
The station, which was placed within the then Gold Coast Department of Agriculture, was given the responsibility to investigate pest and disease control of cocoa, primarily in the Eastern Province.
In 1944 when the colonial administration realised the huge income cocoa was generating into the national economy, it upgraded the station and renamed it West Africa Cocoa Research Institute (WACRI) with additional responsibility to research into soil fertility and agricultural practices with the view to increasing cocoa yield.
Its activities at the same period were also widened to research into other crops such as coffee, kola, shea-nut and cashew, as well as the processing of cocoa and the mandated crops and also to provide information and advice on all matters relating to the production and processing of by-products of the crops.
Currently, CRIG’s seven research divisions comprising of Agronomy/Soil Science, Entomology, Plant Pathology, Physiology/Biochemistry, Social Science and Statistics and New Products Development altogether have a labour force of about 1,200.
They include scientists and other category of workers, majority of them unskilled, helping in research work and also assisting farmers, especially those cultivating cocoa, with modern farming practices.
Some of the workers, especially the extension officers, could be found in most of the cocoa-growing areas such as Eastern, Ashanti, Brong-Ahafo and the Western regions where virgin forests are being cleared for new farms, guiding the farmers on modern agronomical practices.
The institute has also developed seedlings of the new high-yielding hybrid cocoa that start bearing pods after two-and-a-half years of planting, to replace the Amelonado and Amezonia types. They have been made available to the farmers for planting.
Such initiatives as expected led to a rise in cocoa production, which increased from 300,000 metric tonnes in 2002 to more than 700,000 tonnes in 2004.
With the spraying of cocoa farms free of charge by the government, production of the crop has been projected to hit over a million tonnes at the end of the 2008/2009 cocoa season.
It is further anticipated that a financial package offered by the government to cocoa farmers to rehabilitate old farms with the high-yielding hybrid cocoa would in the next three years double production that would make the country to possibly regain its premier position in the production of cocoa in the world.
Apart from producing the raw cocoa, researchers at CRIG have been able to use cocoa husks, juice and the bad beans that under normal circumstances would have gone waste, to produce finished goods such as cocoa butter, soap (alata samina), liquid soap, pomade and alcoholic beverages, such as gin, brandy and wine.
Other products that have been extracted from cocoa waste are animal feed and potash fertiliser.
However, the inability to secure local and foreign entrepreneurs to invest in the mass production of the finished products for both home consumption and export, is one of the biggest challenges of CRIG.
Despite its numerous activities and significant contribution, especially to the production and processing of cocoa, a large segment of the population seems to be unaware of such activities. In order to create awareness of such activities, CRIG, as part of its 70th anniversary, carried out an exhibition on its premises at New Tafo last week.
The activities, which started from the nursing, planting, harvesting and drying of the cocoa beans, also highlighted the processes by which finished goods such as cocoa butter and alcoholic beverages are extracted from the raw cocoa beans.
It brought together pupils and students of first and second-cycle educational institutions and the universities to have first-hand information on the various aspects of cocoa production and processing.
One significant aspect of the celebration was a quiz competition for 12 junior high schools (JHS) in the New Tafo area, namely CRIG JHS, Presbyterian JHS, Gifpraise JHS, Feeden JHS, Catholic JHS, Methodist JHS, all at Tafo, and Amponfi JHS at Osiem, OPASS JHS and Methodist JHS, both at Kukurantumi and the SOS JHS at Asiakwa.
Questions for the keenly competed competition which was won by OPASS JHS with CRIG JHS and Feeden JHS respectively taking the second and third positions were based on all aspects of cocoa production.
According to the Executive Director of CRIG, Dr Adu Ampomah, the competition was to enable the students to know more about cocoa and to generate interest in its cultivation.
At the open day to commemorate the 70th anniversary celebration of the institute on its New Tafo premises, Dr Adu Ampomah stated that it had been the aim of the institute to open its doors to enable people to know of its various activities that had gone a long way to boost cocoa production, as well as the processing of its by-products into consumables.
He, therefore, expressed the hope that the open day would provide a unique opportunity for all stakeholders comprising farmers, processors, agro chemical dealers, cocoa licensed buying companies, students, extension officers and the academia both from near and afar, to share ideas on the cocoa industry.
The achievements of CRIG have indeed won the admiration of many people including investors, the academia and officials of the Cocoa Producers Alliance, especially its Secretary General, Mr Sona Ebai, who was in the country for the 70th anniversary celebration.
Mr Sona Ebai simply remarked that CRIG had really contributed to cocoa production in Ghana and must therefore be given the necessary assistance to continue with its research works.
With the successes so far chalked up within its 70 years of existence, coupled with the increase foreign and local investment in the processing of cocoa beans in the country for the manufacture of various consumer goods, it is anticipated that CRIG would continue to live up to expectation to help increase production of the crop to meet the ever increasing demand for the produce both at home and abroad.
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