The Latin name for cocoa is’ Theobroma ‘which literally means ‘food of the Gods. It was introduce to Ghana by the legendary Tetteh Quashie from Fernando Po, presently Equatorial Guinea. Cocoa is the chief Agricultural export of Ghana and the main cash crop for the country for some decades now.’ Behind Ivory Coast, Ghana is the second largest cocoa exporter in the world. It has been a part of our lives for a long time and has been of immense contribution to the national economy as well as individual incomes.
Ghana’s cocoa cultivation, is known within the developing world to be one of the most modeled commodities and of course the Ghanaian cocoa is deemed to be the best in the whole world in terms of quality.
Despite these, cocoa farmers in Ghana are faced with several challenges and in most cases, their quality of lives is nothing good to write home about. The objective of this article is to highlight some of the challenges in cocoa production.
The area of interest in this write up is Sefwi Wiawso-Datano, a suburb of the newly created Western North region. It is 8km away from the district capital, Wiawso, with more than 8000 people. Ghana’s cocoa cultivation, is known within the developing world to be one of the most modeled commodities and of course the Ghanaian cocoa is deemed to be the best in the whole world in terms of quality. Despite these, cocoa farmers in Ghana are faced with several challenges and in most cases, their quality of lives is nothing good to write home about.
A survey carried out in shows that, majority (80%) of farmers in the area use almost all their farm lands for cocoa production, leaving few of them (20%) who have lands for other non -cash crop ( i.e cassava,banana,plantain etc).
Challenges
For twenty years down the line, farmers have been struggling with paying for utility bills, school fees and taking good care of their homes. This is because, much concentration is on only one cash crop, thus cocoa. Cocoa takes, for about three to four years to be ready for harvest. How and where do this farmers get income to feed the the family? And before the cocoa reach the time of fruiting, a farmer could have spend almost all the money he or she received after harvesting. Below are some of the challenges the farmers face:
Lack of pesticides: Many farmers complain about the scarcity and expense of fertilizers and pesticides. There are also a lot of report on smuggling of the pesticides to neighboring countries.
Aging farming population: Majority of the smallholder farmers are old and there is the need for younger farmers to take over the operations of their farms.
Smuggling :Increased smuggling by farmers and extension workers of both cocoa and pesticides where prices for their goods are more lucrative due to stronger currencies in those neighboring countries.
Inadequate rainfall : It always rain but supposedly at the wrong time in the season and very heavily thereby destroying flowering trees.
Land acquisition and labour for the various activities are problematic. This have discourage most of the youth to engage in cocoa cultivation. It is not attractive any more to the youth in the area, they think cocoa take a long period of time for it to be ready.
The above reasons of using vast land for cocoa cultivation has also increased the price of other foodstuffs such as cassava, yam, plantains and other fruit crops.
How do we curb the situation?
A lasting developmental plan must be draft to accelerate the growth in the cocoa sector and to improve the living condition of the people. These may include;
- teaching farmers when and how to cultivate in season. Knowing when and how to cultivate cocoa and other food crops in this area by most cocoa farmers has been tough to imagine. Some plant out of season (close to the dry season) and this result in withing of cocoa seedlings. Equipping them on how and when to grow will reduce failure.
advising them on how to chose cocoa variety for planting. Majority of farmers have no knowledge on variety of cocoa to cultivate. Giving them the right seed will boost their production and improve their livelihood, since some use seeds that take long to mature with lower yield.
educating farmers to invest in food crops. Cocoa is a cash crop, which means, it takes a number of years to be ready for market. So why can’t they invest in a three-four year crop that will earn them daily? Because there is no education for farmers in the area, they have already misused their lands.
rebranding agriculture to suit the youth.The country is the youth and the youth are the country. Agriculture can directly and indirectly absolve the unemployment youth in the country by making the sector attractive to the youth. We can realize this by given them the requisite knowledge with tools to embark on agriculture project.
Involving farmers in decision and policy making. Farmers are at times rejected and neglected in decision and policy making in various levels. This brings a discomfort to them to accept policies and decisions which will be of no important to them. Therefore, farmers must be included in all decisions and policy making
TOTAL REPRESENTATION ALLIANCE, PROLIFERATION OF ARTICLES TO ENHANCE NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Techiman, Bono East region
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