Introduction
When it comes to intensive farming systems, many rural farmers face a trade-off between agricultural production and biodiversity . In order to protect the biodiversity, farmers must sacrifice agricultural production. Hence, the challenge is to continuously expand food production while bearing no negative effects on biodiversity. These negative effects widely include deforestation, disrupting ecosystem integrity and species viability. In light of these issues, better farming technologies and natural resource management practices along with improved agricultural policies are required. This brings up the question of how to protect wild species and conserve habitat while increasing agricultural production and farmer’s incomes? Thus, this research paper reviews the work on cocoa production in the West African sub region – specifically Ghana – as a biodiversity conservation mechanism and presents recommendations to research gaps related to agroforestry.
Background
According to Richard Asare, “The West African sub region is host to the world’s main cocoa producing countries, including Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Cameroon and Nigeria” . Through progressive Conversion of forests into cocoa fields, these countries are undergoing major deforestation . Ghana in particular, underwent a substantial amount of biodiversity loss due to deforestation and land degradation, incurring an economic loss of approximately $54 billion . Further, Ghanaian forestlands are categorized into reserve and off reserve where an estimated 50 – 70% of the total reserve land was illegally encroached due to numerous factors such as agriculture, mining and timber extraction . In Ghana, 50% of total cocoa farm area is under mild shade while an average of 10% is ...
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...paper, Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Ibadan, Nigeria.
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People are not prone to agree with one another. If you gather a dozen people together for a dinner party and the subject turns to politics or religion, then there is inevitably going to be an argument. There is one thing, however, that there is a near universal consensus on: chocolate is a wonderful and delicious thing.
“Clearing a rain forest to plant annuals is like stripping an animal first of its fur, then its skin. The land howls. Annual crops fly on a wing and a prayer. And even if you manage to get a harvest, why, you need roads to take it out! Take one trip overland here and you'll know forever that a road in the jungle is a sweet, flat, impossible dream. The soil falls apart. The earth melts into red gashes like the mouths of whales. Fungi and vines throw a blanket over the face of the dead land. It's simple, really. Central Africa is a rowdy society of flora and fauna that have managed to balance together on a trembling geologic plate for ten million years: when you clear off part of the plate, the whole slides into ruin… To be here without doing everything wrong requires a new agriculture, a new sort of planning, a new religion” (524-525).
Wright, David, Heather LaRocca, and Grant DeJongh. "Global Problems." The Amazonian Rainforest: Forest to Farmland? The University of Michigan, 2007. Web. 14 Mar. 2014.
McIlroy, R.J. 1963. An introduction to tropical cash crops. Ibadan University Press, Nigeria. 163 pp.
Make Chocolate Fair, a European Campaign for ethic chocolate reports that cocoa farmers in West Africa live off of less that $1.25 a day, which means that a mere 6% of all revenues from chocolate such as Hershey goes to its farmers, while a whopping 70% goes too the conglomerate company. This 6% of shares is startingly low compared to the 1980's, in which farmers got 16%. (Make Chocolate Fair, 2013) These unlivable wages have led large portions of countries such as Ghana and Cote d'Iviore to become extremely impoverished, a consequence unjust considering the strenuous and dangerous work going into the growth of cocoa beans, which involves climbing trees, cutting the cocoa pods off with machetes, letting the beans fermet by covering them with banana leaves, and loading them into bags and carrying the one-hundred pound bags on their backs to be sold. However, admist the already outragious working conditions of cocoa farmers, Hershey and other chocolate companies have a far darker secret, and it isn't "Special
The Amazon and Amelonado cocoa hybrid crop produces more cocoa seeds, has a lower gestation period, and has more than two harvest seasons (Boaher, Kwasi, Snijiders & Tolmer, 1999, p. 169). While this new practice produces a higher yield it is more expensive and requires farmers to use chemicals and new farming practices(Boaher, Kwasi, Snijiders & Tolmer, 1999, p. 169). Farmers social status is important “… in the adoption decision. Status is defined with respect to variables such as royalty, leadership and membership …high status farmers are expected to adopt hybrid cocoa because of the increased recognition the society will confer on them by maintaining their leadership role” (Boaher, Kwasi, Snijiders & Tolmer, 1999 p. 173). The main problem with adopting this new hybrid crop is the cost, because most cocoa farms are typically family run and small scale they are not able to afford it (Boaher, Kwasi, Snijiders & Tolmer, 1999, p. 169). While small farms can not afford this, big plantations are able to adopt this farming method and increase annual yield which increases the plantations wealth. This allows big plantations and companies to control the market and leaves little room for small scale farms to increase net profit, trapping them into a vicious cycle of
People have always had a sweet tooth. In the mid 17th century, the sugar cane was introduced to the New World by the Dutch, who, using slaves, seized this opportunity to make a profit in the British West Indies. Sugar, as well as slaves, played a vital role in the Atlantic Triangular Trade among the Americas, Europe and Africa. Slaves were the working force in this trade network because they harvested the cash crops that circulated around the Atlantic Ocean. A form of slavery very similar to those in the sugar plantations of the Caribbeans is child labor in the modern cocoa industry. Cocoa trees only thrive in humid regions near the equator, which is why two West African countries, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, supply well over half of the world’s total cocoa. In order to keep up with the demand for cocoa, farmers in Africa have employed some 15,000 boys ages 12 to 16 who have been sold into slave labor to harvest and process cocoa beans “under inhumane conditions and extreme abuse” (Chanthavong 1).
on tropical agricultural products, such as coffee and bananas and its climate and resources are
(Minifie B.w, 1989) The cocoa tree (Theobroma cacao) is a surprising tree, which is growed in certain constrained ranges and atmosphere conditions; it is a local of thick tropical timberlands of the Amazon where it develops in semi shade, and high modesty and it is accepted to have spread regularly westwards, and northwards to Guyana and Mexico then later headed to the Caribbean islands. (Morganelli A, 2006) the cocoa tree first develop in rainforests of south and focal America, Its first cultivator s from harvests to trees where the aged Mesoamerican and most cocoa trees are developed in spots close to the equator where the climate is constantly hot and wet. (Backett S.t, 2008) To be called ''...
Currently, children between the ages of 5-14 are actively employed in the cocoa industry. I have first hand knowledge of this due to not just having networked with representatives from African countries at the International Cocoa Organization, but also by being the descendant of cocoa farmers myself. This problem is not exclusive to Ecuador, Africa, and their relation to cocoa but to multiples industries in underdeveloped countries al...
When comes to Economic aspect, coffee is the second most traded product in the world after petroleum. As the country’s economy is dependent on agriculture, which accounts for about 45 percent of the GDP, 90 percent of exports and 80 percent of total employment, coffee is one of the most important commodities to the Ethiopian economy. It has always been the country’s most important cash crop and largest export commodity. (Zelalem Tesera p
Cocoa plantation needs a healthy and vigorous tree because their life span is more than 25 years in producing pods. The infected cocoa trees by diseases will be partly or entirely weakening, thus unproductive and dead eventually. This will result the decrease in crop production due to loss in tree stand per hectare (Azmi; 2003).
Therefore, the way the producers get the cocoa to the market is by after the beans are dried and packed into sacks, the farmer sells to a buying station or local agent. The buyer then transports the bags to an exporting company. The exporting company inspects the cocoa and places it into plastic bags. The cocoa is trucked to the exporter’s
Two common products that are Fair Trade Certified are Cocoa and Coffee, each of which contains problems that producers face but gain benefits from Fair Trade. Fairtrade International states that cocoa is grown in tropical regions of more than 30 developing countries, such as West Africa and Latin America, providing an estimate of 14 million people with livelihood. Fair Trade Standards for cocoa includes no forced labor of any kind - including child labor and environmental standards restricts the use of chemicals and encourage sustainability. A problem cocoa producers face is the lack of access to markets and financing. Since cocoa is a seasonal crop, producers need loans to meet the needs for planting and cultivating their crop. With this in mind,...
Although subsistence activities have dominated agriculture-driven deforestation in the tropics to date, large-scale commercial activities are playing an increasingly significant role. In the Amazon, industrial-scale cattle ranching and soybean production for world markets are increasingly important causes of deforestation, and in Indonesia, the conversion of tropical forest to commercial palm tree plantations to produce bio-fuels for export is a major cause of deforestation on Borneo and Sumatra.