Yara Ghana limited, a fertilizer industry in Ghana has won the Agro Input Company of the year and Agro Input Brand of the year at the second edition of the Ghana Cocoa Awards held in Accra.

The company's input package for cocoa which is the Asaase Wura and YaraLiva Nitrabor were shortlisted among other cocoa fertilizer inputs and companies for the two competitive categories and came out tops at the event.

The award was received by Mr Danquah Addo-Yobo, the West African Regional Director of Yara International.

Commenting on the award, he said Yara Ghana was pleased at the recognition given it, especially having won the Input Company of the year award for the second time running.

He said winning the Agro Input Brand of the year in the second edition would encourage them to continue with support for the cocoa sector through the provision of quality nutrition solutions and agronomic support for cocoa farmers.

He said Yara had played a pioneering role in the fertilizer input sector of Ghana's cocoa industry with the introduction of Asaase Wura cocoa fertilizer in 2005.

This venture involved a huge investment into an otherwise uncharted territory in the cocoa sector by then, showing Yara's commitment to and belief in growing the industry in Ghana.

He said the introduction of the Asaase Wura cocoa fertilizer helped improve cocoa farmers yields and profitably quite significantly.

"Results from several demonstration farms across cocoa growing areas have shown that Asaase Wura and Nitrabor package has consistently shown an average percentage yield increase of 50 per cent for the plots that had Asaase Wura and Nitrabor applied compared to the traditional farmer practice plots," he said.

"Along with our distribution and retail partners, Yara also organizes Crop Clinics and training programmes and reaches thousands of cocoa farmers every year through the Healthier Cocoa Campaigns.

"Several thousands of farmers have been trained over the past years under this program" he said.

Mr Addo-Yobo acknowledge the collaboration and support of the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) regarding trials on Asaase Wura and Nitrabor and the Ghana Cocoa Board and reiterated that Yara Ghana will continue to support the Ghana Cocoa Board in its drive to improve the sector.