The Chief Executive of Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Mr Anthony Fofie, has been honoured by the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) for his immense contribution towards cocoa sustainability in Ghana.

Mr Fofie received the award at the 21st WCF Partnership Meeting and Roundtable Sessions held in Washington DC, United States of America (USA), where he gave a presentation on the topic: "The Role of Public Private Partnership in Feed the Future."

According to a statement issued by the Public Relations Department of COCOBOD in Accra, Mr Fofie expressed his appreciation for the honour done him and pledged to continue to work harder for the advancement of the world cocoa economy.

He outlined the significant role of public-private partnership in cocoa production and extension, input supply services and internal cocoa marketing. Touching on the contribution of public-private partnership in the internal marketing of cocoa, he said that COCOBOD, in collaboration with the WCF and the Hershey's Company of the USA, has introduced the CocoaLink Project in Ghana. This project, he said, would enable local cocoa farmers to use a mobile telephone platform to send technical information in a two-way direction thereby ensuring that information reaches the farmers when they need it most.

Mr Fofie solicited the support of several partners, including Africa Cocoa Initiative (ACI), to help farmers achieve higher and sustainable production. The ACI, he said, would help build farmers' capacity in food production and adoption of good farm management practices.

He reiterated that COCOBOD's attention was geared towards achieving a sustainable cocoa production through high farm productivity which will enable more land resources to be released for food production. This approach, he said, would ensure the attainment of food security.