Seed Production Division

The Seed Production Division (SPD) was set up on 2nd January 2001 following the dissolution of the erstwhile Cocoa Services Division as part of the re-organization of the Agricultural Sector to have a unified Agricultural Extension Services. Consequently, Cocoa extension was ceded to the Department of Agricultural Extension Services (DAES) OF Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA).

The Mission of the Seed Production Division is to multiply and distribute high quality cocoa and coffee planting materials in the most efficient and cost effective manner in adequate quantities to farmers. To ensure the production and delivery of improved cocoa and coffee varieties, Seed Production Division currently operates twenty-seven (27) Cocoa Stations and four (4) Coffee stations spread within the cocoa and coffee growing regions. Hybrid cocoa seed pods are produced through hand pollination of female part of flowers (stigma) of selected female clonal parents with pollen from specific male parents, all selected through research by CRIG. The Division also produces coffee seeds from established bi-clonal seed gardens.

To effectively ensure sustainable cocoa production in the country, the government through COCOBOD introduced the distribution of hybrid cocoa and coffee seedlings to farmers free of charge. In light of the above, COCOBOD has given the Seed Production Division (SPD) the mandate to raise 60 million cocoa seedlings for distribution to farmers free of charge. 

Beneficiaries of this programme include:

1. Farmers whose farms are due for replanting following treatment of cocoa swollen shoot virus disease.
2. Farmers whose farms are 30 years old and consent to have their trees cut for rehabilitation/ replacement.
3. Farmers who intend to establish new cocoa farms, particularly the youth.
4. Farmers who wish to rehabilitate their abandoned or unproductive cocoa farms.

The Division has also been tasked to raise and distribute two (2) million hybrid coffee seedlings free of charge to coffee farmers as well as offer extension services to the farmers to increase their knowledge in the cultivation and production of the crop.

SPD in collaboration with CHED is also training the youth in the cocoa growing areas to undertake artificial (hand) pollination on farmers’ farms to increase yields and improve the livelihoods of the farmers in the rural communities.