Problems of increasing output of small cocoa farmers in Ghana : a case study of the Ashanti Cocoa Project area
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Identifying the causes of the decline in the Ghana cocoa industry is a major concern of policymakers and researchers in Ghana today. The main objective of this study was to identify the problems that prevent the small cocoa farmers in the Ashanti Region from increasing output. Specifically, we wanted to determine the relationship (a) between cocoa and food-crops production; (b) influence of institutions and government policy on cocoa income; and (c) the alternatives open to farmers. A micro-level study, involving 300 small cocoa farmers in the Ashanti Cocoa Project Area in Ghana, was conducted in 1981. The selection of the farmers followed cluster and systematic sampling techniques. The analysis consisted of two main parts. The first part consisted of statistical analysis using the survey data. The second part consisted of a profitability analysis, using national data. The statistical analysis indicated that cocoa farm size, family size, percentage tilled land under food crops, expected income from cocoa, and gross income from food crops were very important variables considered in decision-making involving income from cocoa. Age of cocoa trees and use of chemicals were significant at a=.10, while the others were significant at .05. Farmers’ opinions showed that government policy on pricing, subsidies, and credit was not regarded as effective in stimulating cocoa production. Demographically the average age of farmers was 55 and the average family size was 7. About 68.3 percent were illiterate. The data revealed that the average number of cocoa farms (a farm in this study means a field in the American sense) per farmer was two. The average age of cocoa trees was 25 years, while the average size of a cocoa farm was five acres. Only 30 percent of the cocoa was in the economically bearing age. The average food farm size was 4.5 acres and the average number of food farms per farmer was two. Food cropping was revealed to be both subsistence and commercial. The profitability analysis (based on 1981 prices) showed that plantain-cocoyam mixed was the most lucrative cropping system in the survey area, followed by cassavacorn mixed. Cocoa intercropped with plantain and cocoyam was the least lucrative. To make cocoa production competitive, cocoa farmers would have to be paid about £400 (U.S. $1 = £2.75) per 30 kilograms (66 pounds). The conclusion of the study was that one cannot study problems of small cocoa farmers without considering food crop production. Food crops in 1981 were more profitable than cocoa; thus, farmers were emphasizing food production. The main problems facing farmers and the causes of the decline of the cocoa industry were the unnoticed changes in farming resulting in the increasing competitiveness of other crops with cocoa; labor shortages (this was due to farmers being unable to pay what labor demanded); and traditional farming system which limited expansion, innovation, and development of new production systems and distribution. The major recommendations of the study are: 1. The concept of traditional farming system should be updated to reflect the new form which food production has assumed. 2. Government pricing policies for cocoa and food crops should be reviewed. 3. Some simple technology should be introduced to aid the cocoa farmers in their labor problems. 4. Subsidized inputs should reach the farmers in the required quantity and at the correct time and place. 5. Some credit system should be established to enable farmers to acquire the resources needed to improve their farming business.
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