A sustainable solution to the cocoa crisis in Ghana
As the second largest producer of cocoa in the world, this crop is very important for livelihoods in Ghana. With climate change increasingly influencing the yields and poor soil management depleting the nutrition needed for the crops to resist disease, the Cocoa Board urgently wants to find ways to boost cocoa yields while addressing deforestation.
Trade Forum spoke with Joseph Boahen Aidoo, the CEO of Ghana’s Cocoa Board, about climate-smart agriculture and how a pilot project based on dynamic agroforestry is a much-needed path to sustainable cocoa farming.
Ghana is the second largest producer of cocoa in the world with cocoa farming supporting the livelihoods of up to 30% of Ghana's population. However, the production levels have been going down in the past two decades: the potential yield of cocoa harvests could be much higher if it weren’t for the nutrient-poor soil.
By cutting down rain forests to cultivate cocoa only, we are not only damaging the ecosystem, but also harming the cocoa farms and yields in the long run. The cocoa plant is not protected, and with higher, dryer temperatures pests come. Right now, we are facing the Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus Disease, and there is no chemical remedy for this.
We need to regenerate the soil’s biomass. And we need to do that organically, for example by returning the cocoa shells back to the farms so they can rejuvenate the soil and by adding other crops through dynamic agroforestry.
To prevent the Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus Disease from spreading, we cut down the cocoa plants and re-plant the farms. The disease has now affected almost 20% of Ghana’s total productive area.
The Cocoa Board, together with the Government, intervenes for the farmers. So far, we have been able to rehabilitate close to 70,000 hectares of diseased farms from the total 500,000 hectares. To rehabilitate each hectare and re-fruit it in two to three years, it takes $4,000. That means, that Ghana would need roughly $2 billion dollars to deal with this problem.
We also have challenges with competing land use for purposes such as cashew farming or mining. Here price plays a major role. If cocoa prices are down, the farmers’ incomes decline – which causes them to lose interest in growing the crop.
Now that prices are up, farmers are motivated because they are going to have better incomes. We recently announced a new price for the farmers, so they are very happy right now.
Our vision is regenerative farming. And you need to do this organically. This is what the Sankofa programme is about. You bring cocoa, fruit trees, and other subsistence crops together with higher canopy trees – like timber. With different life cycles and height levels, they foster biodiversity in the agricultural production system. This creates a closed nutrient cycle that imitates natural forests and feeds into a healthy, balanced ecosystem.
This giant biomass not only captures carbon dioxide, but also enhances plant growth and shields the cocoa from disease. The Sankofa programme mitigates climate change, while increasing the yields, as we have heard directly from the farmers themselves.
Finally, dynamic agroforestry improves the economy as the farming communities earn a better income, have more food security through the added, diverse harvesting of crops on their cocoa plot, and so on.
We are also witnessing women farmers as the drivers of this project, which is a big plus when it comes to inclusiveness.
This must be scaled up to all of Ghana – it cannot remain a pilot project.
ITC has been doing tremendous work in Ghana. Apart from building the capacity of Ghana’s small business in the cocoa and coffee value chains, they represent a major platform and link to other partners and businesses across the globe.
And I find this very significant because the farmers are exposed to new technologies, business partners, trade and finance, and much more. ITC’s unique role in commodity trading and building supply chains cannot be underestimated.
I urge ITC to scale their work as much as they can.
