Accra, Sep. 8 - Ghana's government has doubled its budgetary allocation for supplying fertliser to cocoa farmers for the 2008/09 crop starting this month, an official at the Cocobod cocoa regulator said at the weekend.
The world's second biggest producer aims to raise its cocoa output to 1 million tonnes a year by 2010, from an average of 670,000 tonnes over the past four seasons.
"A key component of the strategy toward the 1 million target is to encourage farmers to shift from traditional to hi-tech production, through increased fertiliser application," said the official, who declined to be named as they were not authorised to speak to the media.
The budgetary allocation for fertiliser had been doubled to 65.5 million cedis for the 2008/09 crop, the official said.
"We believe the doubling of the fertiliser budget this year is a giant step ... It puts us on track," the official said.