MASO is a five year programme, focused on creating employment opportunities for the youth (aged 18-25) in Ghana’s cocoa communities.
Sustainable production practices and the expansion of cocoa production in Ghana are linked to the availability of improved planting materials. As part of training the next generation of cocoa farmers in Ghana, the MASO programme establishes nurseries in each of the communities where we run the MASO Agro Academy.
The youth are provided with practical training to acquire the requisite basic skills for establishing and maintaining the seedlings till when they are transplanted. For now, the seedlings are distributed to the young men and women participating in the MASO Agro-Academy to establish their own cocoa farms.
According to the MASO Agro-Academy Coordinator, Philip Kankam, various communities support the youth by giving them a piece of land for the nursery. An ideal nursery site he said, “must have a regular source of water supply, good topsoil, close to the community for easy supervision, well-drained sandy loam soil and away from stray animals”. This he said is to ensure the nurseries survived till they seedlings are transplanted.
Preparations for the nurseries started in December 2017. All logistics needed for the establishment and proper management of community cocoa nurseries are provided by MASO while cocoa seed pods are sourced from the Ghana Cocoa Board.
Cocoa seeds pods from the Ghana Cocoa Board ready to be nursed.
The youth will maintain the seedlings between 5-6 months before the seedlings are transferred- to the farms around June.
Last year, a total of over 800,000 cocoa seedlings were cultivated and supplied to youth to plant on their individual farms.The nursery establishment, for now, is more for the training and learning of the Agro-Academy. Eventually, it is expected when the youth acquire the needed skills they can also go in nurseries as a source of income.
