Stop misleading farmers about cocoa agroforestry

Kokoo … Ghana! Ghana … Kokoo! Kooko … Business!. This is the emergent slogan you’ll hear during COCOBOD rallies with farmers.

Recently, our government, cocoa companies and NGOs have continued reaffirming cocoa’s importance in our national economy, urging farmers to rethink cocoa farming as a business, not a pastime.

These actors encourage, support, and even manipulate cocoa farmers nationwide to integrate shade trees into their cocoa. “Seek ye first Cocoa Agroforestry”, they preach, “and all your problems will be solved”.

How disingenuously their forked tongues spin, cajoling our farmers into a frenzied race toward a mirage from whose pool they’ll never drink but impoverish in anticipation.

Agroforestry

Cocoa agroforestry is as much about integrating trees into cocoa as it is about growing food crops with cocoa. Yet many “cocoa agroforestry revivalists” neglect the second in their cocoa agroforestry doctrine.

Over time, this has led to the establishment of cocoa farms devoid of food to the extent that many cocoa farmers either resort to taking on debt to eat or encroaching into forest areas to produce food crops, as accentuated in my recent publication, “The Political Ecology of Cocoa Agroforestry and Implications for Equitable Land Use in Rural Ghana”.

Several others have also raised concerns about growing food insecurity among cocoa farmers. Hashmiu et al., (2021) summarise such concerns astutely when with their assertion: ‘Income from cocoa alone is not high enough and widely distributed to guarantee food security’.

According to Iddrisu et al., (2020), this includes cocoa farmers certified under various sustainability programmes.

Half-truths

So why do many cocoa agroforestry revivalists keep baptising cocoa farmers with half-truths? Well, several factors account for this, but I’ll highlight three – space limitations.

Starting with cocoa companies, it is in their interest to do whatever possible to ensure that our prized cocoa beans keep on flowing.

Any distortions in supply mean higher prices on the world market, as we have witnessed since the turn of the year when fears about poor cocoa yield in our country and neighbouring Ivory Coast pushed prices to historic highs, from around USD 3300 (September 2023) to USD 12,000 (April 2024).

One may argue that higher prices are better for producer countries. However, this is not necessarily true because our government mortgages unharvested cocoa beans for loans at fixed rates. Surges in cocoa prices primarily benefit speculators and those in the financial markets.

Second point

This flows into the second point: basically, our government’s hands are tied. Although our greedy politicians tied our hands for their gain. Yet cocoa farmers are being asked to sacrifice for the good of the country.

Finally, many NGOs, through their cocoa agroforestry crusades, have become subservient to foreign interests, including those of cocoa companies.

To foot their wage bills, or maintain their relevance, they have become cogs in the exploitative machinations of powerful cocoa sector actors, external governments, and multinationals by becoming credulous, sleeping watchdogs.

With such powerful forces at play, one cannot expect the indoctrination around cocoa agroforestry to assuage abruptly, especially with so few actors acting with a genuine interest in the development and welfare of cocoa farmers.

Advice

My advice: If you’re a cocoa farmer, especially with a small landholding, do not be tempted by the recent increases in cocoa prices by the government to double down on producing the crop.

We have been here before in the 1930s when price increases were swiftly followed by a collapse and then stagnation after productivity boomed.

Instead, please find a way to grow a good portion of what you eat first. You may intersperse your food crops with cocoa. However, do it smartly and not compromise your very own access to food over time. Your food security is paramount.

As for the so-called cocoa agroforestry evangelists, stop misleading our farmers: Cocoa Agroforestry is NOT only about growing shade trees in cocoa. Producing food continuously is a basic tenet of agroforestry.

Kokoo may be Ghana, and Ghana, Kooko. The business of cocoa, however, is a different gospel altogether.

This is because cocoa as a business only benefits the rich, powerful, and most vocal. Unless our farmers can join forces and speak with one voice, holding the industry hostage, if necessary; our rallying voice must be “Kokoo … Food First!

The writer is a Researcher, Land, Society, and Governance Group, Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery, University of Oxford, UK; Partnership for Agriculture, Conservation and Transformation (PACT), Ghana.