Policy coherence needed in cocoa sector - Solidaridad
The Regional Director of Solidaridad West Africa, Isaac Gyamfi, has called for policy coherence in the cocoa sector to boost production of the commodity to create wealth along the cocoa value chain.
Mr Gyamfi said coherent policies devoid of partisan interests would help the private sector to plan their investments in a manner that would transform the industry.
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He observed, for instance, that the subsidy regimes on inputs in the cocoa sector must be consistent across political administrations.
"We are not against subsidies, but if that is the pathway, we will love to see it being firm such that the private sector can operate around it. It should not be such that one time there is subsidy and another time there is no subsidy, or sometimes the percentage is high, another time it is low," he added.
Mr Gyamfi stated that at an event in Accra to officially close the Cocoa Rehabilitation and Intensification Programme (CORIP), and to share the success story of the programme and the lessons learnt from its implementation.
The CORIP was initiated by Solidaridad, with funding support from the Netherlands — the major destination for cocoa produced in West Africa.
It was implemented in Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, Liberia and Sierra Leone and is meant to transform the cocoa value chain.The CORIP was implemented in two phases over the last eight years, with the second phase lasting between 2017 and 2021.
Living income
Mr Gyamfi said under the programme, farmers produced between 700 kilogrammes per hectare of cocoa to 1.2 metric tonnes per hectare, and described it as “very phenomenal”.
He, however, said the improvements in production alone could not address the living income of farmers, stressing that the living income of cocoa farmers must come from multiple income streams.
Mr Gyamfi said apart from high productivity, there should be good pricing, diversification of crop portfolio by farmers and fair value distribution.
He said although more wealth and value had been created upstream of the cocoa value chain, farmers were getting about eight per cent of the total wealth, while marketers, processors and chocolate manufacturers made "very substantial margins".
He noted that the Rural Service Centres initiative could be a good approach to address child labour in the cocoa sector because service providers would be minded to use ethical labour, which frowns on using children for farm services.
Mr Gyamfi also observed that in the wake of growing concerns about climate change and the impact on agriculture, it was important to curb forest degradation.
He said there was a need to look for ways to capitalise on innovation and technology that would cause less harm to the forests.
Endorsement
The Director of Research, Monitoring and Evaluation, of Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Rev. Edwin Afari, described the CORIP as revolutionary, saying it had proven to be useful in consolidating the gains made in the cocoa sector.
He said some service companies established in communities in the Western, Western North, Bono and Ahafo regions were providing services under the board’s cocoa swollen shoot virus disease treatment programme.
Rev. Afari said Solidaridad had collaborated with COCOBOD under the Cocoa Health and Extension Division to train over 70,000 cocoa farmers in climate-smart cocoa production in the Ashanti, Brong-Ahafo, Volta, and Western regions.
The Dutch Ambassador to Ghana, Jeroen Verheul, said the CORIP had contributed to the embassy’s overarching goal of poverty reduction and sustainable cocoa production in the countries it was implemented in.
He said the CORIP had generated valuable lessons that would contribute to the conceptualisation, design, funding, and implementation of future programmes, not only for donors like the Dutch government but for private actors and governments as well.
“It is my firm belief that the Government of Ghana, the Ghana Cocoa Board, and all relevant stakeholders, will work with us to build an ecosystem that supports the development of a competitive cocoa sector in the country,” he said.
