Euroviews. I am a cocoa farmer. When I say we need training and investment to thrive, take my word for it

The land in my home in Ghana is rich. It has diamonds and gold. It has oil and natural gas. It can grow coffee and a lot, a whole lot, of cocoa beans here in the Ahafo region. 

But today, it’s not so easy to be a cocoa farmer, especially with dying crops and a shrinking harvest that has made farming more difficult and turned cocoa into an increasingly expensive commodity.

I know cocoa farming like the back of my hand. I am a 69-year-old cocoa farmer from a cocoa farming family (my 105-year-old father was also a cocoa farmer). 

I am also an educator and a certified teacher of agroscience, and what I am sure about now after all these years in the industry is that long-term investments and training are what is needed to make cocoa production sustainable.

Like me, a majority of the farmers here applaud the fixed farmgate price increase made earlier this month, but when compared to the world market prices, we know we are not getting our share and that long-term sustainability requires a different approach.

Farmers need recommendations and intensified training on pruning. Pruning is often minimal and shouldn’t be, especially because it helps with disease control, a big issue right now, and prevents moisture from building up by allowing more sunlight to filter in. 

It also stimulates the growth of new shoots and encourages more flowering, which usually means more cocoa pods.

We need the government and stakeholders to invest in artificial pollination. Most cocoa trees are self-incompatible; they cannot pollinate themselves. This means pollinators — biting midges — need to pick up pollen from the male parts of a flower on one tree and deposit it on the female parts of a flower on another tree. 

But this doesn’t always happen.

A recent