Ghana attains highest cocoa production in history

Ghana has produced the highest volume of cocoa beans in its history, exceeding over one million metric tonnes with over ten weeks left until the end of the season, according to official data.

Data on grading of beans by the Quality Control Company of COCOBOD sighted by the Finder newspaper shows that, with just two weeks to go in the light crop season, the board has recorded over one million (1,030,000) metric tonnes.

Even though the season is not over, this will be the highest production recorded in Ghana’s production history. This figure is expected to be higher by the close of the season.

The highest production before this new record, of a little over one million metric tonnes (1,024,000), was recorded in the 2010/11 season.

The increase in yields is in fulfilment of the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) manifesto promise to push annual cocoa output above one million metric tonnes, using a series of fresh measures, when the party took power under President Akufo-Addo in January 2017.

When contacted, the management of Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) would neither deny nor confirm the record-breaking achievement.

Government’s intervention

The groundbreaking record is being attributed largely to intervention productivity enhancement programmes rolled out by COCOBOD.

The introduction of various agronomic interventions by the government is helping to bring a tremendous increase in crop yields per acre on cocoa farms.

Similarly, the introduction of measures such as mass pruning of cocoa farms, hand pollination and application of fertiliser to the tree crop, has helped increase yields.

The new policies also include retooling and deepening of the Cocoa Disease and Pest Control Programme (CODAPEC); streamlining HI-TECH, the programme to ensure equal access to fertilisers and other farm inputs; and facilitating the formation of cocoa farmer groups and co-operatives across the country, which has led to more than 3,000 of them being registered with the Department of Co-operatives.

The interventions targeted through COCOBOD’s extension officers also involve the introduction of motorised weed slashers and pruners, as well as a new cocoa purchasing policy and the enhanced cocoa rehabilitation programme.

Hand pollination has had perhaps the greatest single impact on the rise in productivity, increasing the number of pods a single cocoa tree bears at a time. By COCOBOD’s estimation, a single tree can now give a farmer almost 32 kilos of cocoa, which is half of a bag.

All-year-round harvesting

New results from a pilot of cocoa cultivation using an irrigation system are also promising.

Farmers in the Western North Region involved in the pilot are recording yields as high as 7,000 kilogrammes per acre.

Aside from farmers achieving optimal yields through irrigation, they now the chance to harvest throughout the year without being obliged to expand the land under cultivation, which contributes to deforestation.

Water is crucial for cocoa farming, and COCOBOD is focusing on pushing for cocoa production under irrigation for farmers.

$600 million JICA, AfDB facility

The irrigation pilot project is part of activities under the $600 million syndicated loan from the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) and African Development Bank (AfDB) under the Enhanced Private Sector Assistance for Africa initiative.

Initiatives under the facility include the allocation of financing to increase cocoa plant fertility sustainably and rehabilitate aged and disease-infected farms.

ISO certification

The Quality Control Company (QCC), a subsidiary of COCOBOD, received certification for global quality and standards for cocoa products from Ghana.

The ISO certifications 17020 and 17025 was acquired with the support of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) and the Swiss government.

The new certification makes Ghana the only country in the West African sub-region with such a level of accreditation.

The cocoa sector accounts for 4.5% of Ghana’s gross domestic product and contributes 25% of national merchandise export earnings.

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