The new Ghana cocoa boom in the 2000s : from forest clearing to Green revolution

Ghanaian cocoa production, after collapsing in the 1970s and 1980s and with a low of 200,000 tonnes in 1983, started to recover slightly in the 1990s and suddenly doubled to 600,000 tonnes in the first half of the 2000s. The main objective of this paper is to analyze the statistical breakdown of this cocoa boom in the 2000s. What was the relative weight of smuggling of cocoa beans from Côte d'Ivoire to Ghana compared to the real cocoa production increase in Ghana? What was the role of new cocoa production area compared to increasing cocoa yields? If yields increased, has there been any increased adoption of modern inputs such as insecticides, fungicides and fertilizers? A panel of 450 farms was progressively built to analyse production changes at the farm and household level. The first survey was conducted in 2004 on a sample of 150 farms in three districts of the Western region (Amenfi East, Amenfi West and Aowin Suanman) and one in the Eastern region (Kade), and then re-surveyed and extended to 200 farms in 2005. Then in 2007, the same panel was re-surveyed and extended to 450 farms in 8 districts, including Hemang (Central region), Afigya Sekyere (Ashanti region), Dormaa (Brong Ahafo region) and Nzema-Est (Western region). Over the 6-year period between 2001/02 and 2006/07, cocoa production increased by 60%: 10% smuggling from Côte d'Ivoire and 50% real increase in national production, itself explained by the combination of a 15% increase in cocoa production area and a 30-35% increase in yields per hectare. The latter is for the greater part explained by the increased use of pesticides and the adoption of fertilizers, accompanied by increased farmers' efforts towards weed control and pruning. The adoption of new cocoa hybrids starts to have an impact as well. Moreover, various forms of climate change effects and more certainly regional production shifts play a role in making production more regular throughout the year. As the most impressive factor of increasing cocoa production is the intensification per unit of land, at least partially based on the adoption of modern inputs, this boom can be seen as the start of a green revolution in the Ghanaian cocoa sector, thereby diminishing its dependency on tropical forests. However, forest tree cutting still continues and new environmental problems related to modern inputs may arise. This calls for a kind of 'double green' revolution. Finally, the role of labour, either through the additional effort of individuals already engaged in cocoa farming, or through labour saving technologies, or through additional workers brought to the cocoa sector needs to be clarified by further investigation. (Résumé d'auteur