COCOBOD Relaunches Free Fertilizer Programme With Digital Tracking to End Diversion, Boost Farmer Incomes

The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) on Friday relaunched its free fertilizer and agro-input programme for cocoa farmers, abandoning the previous 50 per cent subsidy in favour of full free distribution backed by a new digital tracking system designed to prevent the diversion and smuggling that plagued earlier iterations.

The relaunch, held at Sefwi Wiawso in the Western North Region under the theme “Cocoa Sector Reset: Free Fertilizer for Increased Productivity and Improved Farmer Income,” brought together government officials, traditional leaders, farmers and stakeholders from across the cocoa value chain .

A Major Logistics Undertaking

COCOBOD has procured over 3.5 million bags of granular fertilizer for nationwide distribution, with approximately 1.2 million bags already delivered to farmers. The package also includes 1.8 million litres of liquid fertilizer, 2.3 million litres of insecticide and 1.5 million kilogrammes of fungicide, all provided at no cost .

The board has additionally supplied about 27,000 new spray machines in a single year—bringing the total available to roughly 67,000—along with approximately 5.7 million litres of pre-mixed fuel to support mechanical application of liquid fertilizer and insecticides .

Farmers with mature and productive cocoa plantations in designated operational districts are eligible to receive the inputs, whether granular or liquid, along with free pneumatic and motorized sprayers.

Learning From Past Failures

COCOBOD CEO Dr Randy Abbey acknowledged that previous free distribution systems had been undermined by diversion, smuggling, favouritism and unfair distribution.

“Inputs meant for genuine farmers ended up in open markets across the borders and on the farms of the well-connected, while smallholder farmers at the end of the line went home empty-handed,” Abbey said .

The new system is built around the Digital Cocoa Management System (CMS), which requires every beneficiary to register and have their farms marked and captured. Identity verification at collection points will be conducted through national identification cards or biometric data .

“This time, we have built the entire distribution around a new digital distribution system that follows every bag or litre of input from the warehouse to the farm,” Abbey said. “No one can collect the fertilizer and the agro-inputs in another person’s name, and no ghost farmer names can appear on the list” .

The system automatically calculates each farmer’s entitlement based on the marked size and condition of their farm, preventing distribution officers from altering allocations. Abbey warned that any officer, buyer or individual found diverting or selling the inputs would face the full rigours of the law.

A Sector Under Severe Strain

The intervention comes as Ghana’s cocoa industry confronts a convergence of existential challenges: declining productivity, ageing and unproductive farms, rising production costs, labour constraints, soil fertility depletion, persistent capsid pests and swollen shoot virus disease, and increasing climate variability .

COCOBOD Board Chairman Dr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo framed the distribution as inseparable from the government’s broader commitment to the sector’s survival.

“We cannot expect increased national cocoa production without investing adequately in the farms and supporting the farmers who cultivate them,” he said. “Equally, we cannot achieve sustainable productivity if we do not address the underlying challenges of soil fertility, pest and disease management, access to improved planting material and effective extension services” .

The stakes extend beyond individual livelihoods. Cocoa employs some 800,000 farm families across 10 of Ghana’s 16 administrative regions and remains a major contributor to government revenue and GDP . The USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service projected Ghana’s 2025/26 cocoa production at 750,000 metric tonnes, a 25 per cent increase from the previous season’s 600,000 tonnes, partly crediting improved tree management and favourable weather . However, COCOBOD has warned that 2026/27 production could fall to between 450,000 and 550,000 tonnes due to the combined effects of swollen shoot disease, ageing farms and potential El Niño-related weather disruptions .

Political and Economic Context

The relaunch fulfils a promise President John Mahama made during the launch of the Farmer Service Centre at Takoratwene in the Kwahu Afram Plains South District in March 2026, and forms part of the government’s 24-Hour Economy initiative and the FEED Ghana agricultural transformation agenda .

It also follows a turbulent period for cocoa farmers. In February 2026, the government reduced the producer price from GH¢3,625 to GH¢2,587 per 64-kilogramme bag, citing a sharp fall in global market prices and mounting liquidity pressures—a decision the opposition NPP criticised as insensitive to farmers . The free input programme is partly intended to offset that financial squeeze by removing production costs from farmers’ balance sheets.

“Free fertilizer is not a handout; it is an investment in farmers, in the soil, and in the foreign exchange earnings of this republic,” Abbey said .

As distribution begins across the cocoa belt, the success of the digital tracking system will determine whether the government can finally deliver on a promise that previous interventions failed to keep: that the inputs reach the smallholder farmers who need them most, and that the sector’s slide toward lower yields and ageing trees is arrested before it becomes irreversible.