SPOTLIGHT
Under normal conditions, cocoa production in Ghana is considered environmentally friendly, as beans grow without watering and need little additional pesticides or herbicides. However, more frequent droughts and rising temperatures are already affecting West Africa and may even turn large swathes of the region to savanna by 2050, according to a report based on data from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. As part of its climate action portfolio, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has worked with partners to train more than 35,000 farmers across Ghana to grow ‘shade trees’ over their plantations, which in turn protect cocoa plants from both heat and water stresses. This practice has the added benefit of increasing cocoa yields in the short term and overall sustainability in the long term. Ama Konadu, who has been farming
cocoa for the past 20 years in New Apaso, a village in the south of Ghana, says: “At first when we cut trees for farming, we were not replanting and most of the cocoa trees didn’t do well especially when it got to the dry season. We were also just using chemicals anyhow for spraying and all these were affecting our yields badly… [However, since replanting shade trees, my] yields have doubled from eight bags to 16 from my eight acre-farm. I might say I am financially independent, as I don’t have to ask my husband for everything.” UNDP is helping farmers to help themselves by promoting simple, effective and sustainable practices. “Besides buffering cocoa plants, shade trees also enhance soil fertility due to leaf shedding and pruning residues. These enrich the soil in organic matter
people are employed in COCOBOD's rehabilitation programs
40,000 35,000 farmers in Ghana
have been trained by the United Nations Development Programme
Around
45 percent of Ghana's labor
force is employed in agriculture,
accounting for some
15 percent of GDP
and recycle nutrients and reduce soil erosion,” says Praise Nutakor, Head of Communications and Partnerships at UNDP Ghana. “It is important to continue to support cocoa farmers to adopt environmentally sustainable practices for improved livelihoods and to restore degraded landscapes.”
Working with partners worldwide By continuing to support the cocoa industry in Ghana, the OPEC Fund is playing a part in safeguarding jobs all over the country, supporting an iconic industry as it emerges from the multiple challenges of COVID-19, and investing in a crop that can be farmed sustainably now and in the future.
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PHOTO: Matteo Guedia/iStock
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