During my master’s Thesis in 2019, I reflected on almost all the known initiatives the Ghana Government and industry stakeholders announced to have implemented to address the livelihood changes of smallholder farmers. I concluded that: It is not real for smallholder farmers to sustainably gain sufficient income to solve their income-driven challenges if they attempt …
Cocoa farmers in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire are likely to suffer poor yields as they cannot afford the cost of fertilizer, reports Reuters. The price has doubled and, in some cases, tripled from a year ago, farmers lamented. Nitrogen-based fertilizer such as nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium (NPK) costs between 36,000 and 38,000 CFA francs ($57-$60) for a 50kg …
CÔTE D’IVOIRE AND GHANA EXPECT LOWER YIELDS AS FERTILISER BECOMES UNAFFORDABLE Read More »
The killing Elephant The dead owner lay right in front of our small cacao farm in Sre Ampom, in the hills of Mondulkiri, Cambodia. He should have known better. His male elephant had already been unpredictable, restless and aggressive for the past week. The bull was in what they call a ‘musth’, a natural phenomenon …
Only 11mm of rain fell in Soubre last week; that’s about 60% of the five-year average. Soubre is one of the main growing regions, located toward the west of the country and is where many of the nation’s farmers carve out their living. Yet the level of moisture being measured in the soil is still …
BELOW AVERAGE RAINFALL IN CÔTE D’IVOIRE NOT WORRYING FARMERS Read More »
Continued from Part One KOA’S Definition of Sustainability One of my most important questions was asking them what KOA’s definition of sustainability meant and how it influenced their business model and relationship with their partner farmers. To KOA, they preferred to replace the word “Sustainability” with “Responsibility”. They believe investing in the humans (The people) …
ASSESSING KOA’S DEFINITION OF SUSTAINABILITY AND THE TREATMENT OF THEIR PARTNER FARMERS Read More »
Ghana may be seeing the lowest Cocoa crop it has produced in 12 years, as its plantations suffered from severe droughts and damage from illegal gold mining. As the world’s second largest producer of Cocoa, this development could affect cocoa prices as reduced supply is likely to put upward pressure on market prices. However, other …
GHANA FACING 12-YEAR LOW COCOA CROP DUE TO DROUGHT, ILLEGAL MINING Read More »
Ecuador Cocoa farmers have been using drones from technology company XAG to alleviate labour shortages. XAG makes a range of products, from land-based rover robots to airborne drones. With cocoa prices under pressure as a result of the slowdown in the global economy, finding ways to increase efficiency is more important than ever. Drones are …
HOW ECUADOR COCOA FARMERS ARE USING DRONES FOR PEST CONTROL Read More »
PART ONE In 2017, a German Investor who initially came to Ghana to explore the viability of a solar business ended up establishing the first cocoa-pulp manufacturing factory in Ghana. They recently also launched their blockchain-based transparency system to demonstrate to their customers how much they pay their partner farmers. While this business venture converts …
EXPOSING COCOBOD’S LACK OF VISION THE WEST’S SUSTAINABILITY HYPOCRISY, OR BOTH? Read More »
The University of Nottingham showcased their research into the influence of microbes on chocolate flavour at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition in London last week. They said it was their hope to show people the science behind chocolate, with researchers stating that the key to discovering new flavours in chocolate lies in properly understanding …
NOTTINGHAM RESEARCH REVEALS ‘SCIENCE BEHIND CHOCOLATE’ AT EXHIBITION Read More »
According to Reuters, Côte d’Ivoire’s Cocoa-growing regions saw heavy rains last week, which farmers say will encourage the early growth of their main crop from October to March. The global leaders in Cocoa production are currently in their mid-crop season, which runs from April to September. Farmers are reportedly optimistic about a strong finish, expecting …
HEAVY RAINS IN CÔTE D’IVOIRE MARK GOOD START FOR COCOA MAIN CROP Read More »
Digital solutions provider Farmforce has partnered with Fairtrade International and Fairtrade Africa to apply their technical solution to the issue of traceability in Ivorian Cocoa farms. It was recently announced that they would be extending their new data management system to over two dozen Cocoa cooperatives across Côte d’Ivoire. Traceability through to the last mile …
FAIRTRADE AND FARMFORCE EXTEND REACH OF ‘FAIRDATA’ SYSTEM IN CÔTE D’IVOIRE Read More »
Part Two….. A Possible nepotism/corruption? Mondelez is a chocolate manufacturer, whereas Olam is global cocoa sourcing and cocoa processing firm. With Mondelez’s focus on chocolate manufacturing, it will only make sense to purchase their Cocoa beans (for the bean-to-bar chocolate) or their semi-processed cocoa products for chocolate manufacturing, all from Olam. I do not know …
THE CONSEQUENCES OF MONDELEZ/OLAM’S PROJECT ON COCOA FARMERS AND THEIR ECONOMIES Read More »
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