(3 minutes read)
· Cocoa farmers in Ghana are disillusioned with the crop as their returns dwindle and finding difficulties in making both end meet
· The labor-intensive farming and vaulted prices of chemicals are taking the tolls on the farmers and many have decided to either switching the crop or leaving agriculture forever
· The trading of cocoa beans is cumbersome since the farmer is not face to face with the end –users
Cocoa farmers in Ghana are disillusioned with the crop as their returns dwindle and finding difficulties in making both end meet. The labor-intensive farming and vaulted prices of chemicals are taking the tolls on the farmers and many have decided to either switch the crop or leave agriculture forever.
Farmers are disappointed. They want the government to increase the prices since the crop is the only source of their income and low prices would mean pushing them further down in the poverty line. Ghana and Ivory Coast are major producers of Cocoa, accounting for almost 60% of the world production. . Millions of farmers are dependent on cocoa farming.
Growing cocoa is a strenuous task since harvesting and cultivation require close and continuous attention. A whole year’s crop on an average makes half a kilo of cocoa from one tree. The harvesting of the pods, which contains the beans ripen at various stages, is a year round process. That requires constant monitoring of the tree.
Besides, Cocoa is a very delicate crop and susceptible to various types of diseases. The trading of cocoa beans is cumbersome since the farmer is not face to face with the end –users. Middlemen buy the sacks of unprocessed beans and sell them to exporters. They sell to the grinding companies mostly in the developed countries finally ground to make cocoa liquor. That is used to manufacture chocolate again by multinational giants in the West and sold several times more than the price given to the farmer for the raw materials. Cocoa farmers have been on the receiving side for a long time.
