Sangam: A Confluence of Knowledge Streams

The Struggle to Intensify Cocoa Production in Ghana: Making a Living from the Forest in Western North

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dc.creator Yaro, Joseph
dc.creator Teye, Joseph Kofi
dc.creator Wiggins, Steve
dc.date 2022-02-21T13:38:40Z
dc.date 2022-02-21T13:38:40Z
dc.date 2022-02-01
dc.date.accessioned 2022-05-26T08:53:03Z
dc.date.available 2022-05-26T08:53:03Z
dc.identifier Yaro, J.A., Teye, J.K. and Wiggins, S. (2022) The Struggle to Intensify Cocoa Production in Ghana: Making a Living From the Forest in Western North. APRA Working Paper 84. Brighton: Future Agricultures Consortium, DOI: 10.19088/APRA.2022.006
dc.identifier 978-1-78118-918-4
dc.identifier https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/20.500.12413/17181
dc.identifier Rural Futures
dc.identifier 10.19088/APRA.2022.006
dc.identifier.uri http://localhost:8080/xmlui/handle/CUHPOERS/198967
dc.description Since cocoa began to be cultivated in the 1880s in southern Ghana, it has created jobs, incomes and prosperity for the many farmers growing the crop. Until recently, cocoa farmers could make use of highly favourable conditions when clearing forests to plant cocoa. They needed to do little other than plant seedlings then wait to harvest the pods. When trees aged, or soil fertility declined, or swollen shoot viral disease attacked the trees, they could abandon the old groves and move to establish new stands of cocoa in virgin forests. Over the decades, the frontier for new cocoa farms moved west across the country. By the 2000s, however, the last available forests in Western Region were being taken up and the frontier closed. With no new land available for cocoa, farmers would need to maintain and renew their groves to preserve their incomes, and to intensify production if they wanted to earn more from cocoa. At the same time, farmers faced increasing attacks from pests, fungi, parasites and the deadly threat of swollen shoot – while their trees aged and needed replanting. As a result of a lack of technical knowledge and capital, farmers struggled to respond to these challenges, continue cocoa production and intensify further. This study explores if it is still possible to make a living from cocoa in the region and if so, how.
dc.language en
dc.publisher APRA, Future Agricultures Consortium
dc.rights http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
dc.rights APRA, Future Agricultures Consortium
dc.subject Agriculture
dc.subject Economic Development
dc.subject Environment
dc.subject Rural Development
dc.title The Struggle to Intensify Cocoa Production in Ghana: Making a Living from the Forest in Western North
dc.type Series paper (non-IDS)
dc.coverage Ghana


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