RESEARCH NEEDS FOR SUSTAINABLE COCOA PRODUCTION IN GHANA

Turning the cocoa farms into shaded systems will require nurturing of the naturally occurring trees and planting of new trees. These trees should then also be registered, to give the farmer the rights to the resource (see ‘Tree tenure’). It seems that at the moment, cocoa farmers do not plant trees on their own initiative (Anon., personal communication) but they do participate in planting programmes from various organisations.

Of course it is important to consider the type of trees that are planted on the cocoa farm. First of all it is important to prevent or minimise the competition with the cocoa tree. CRIG has identified the recommended number of trees per hectare to find the optimum level of shade. However, there is no distinction between the types of trees. Different species will create different levels of shade, depending its characteristics, such as size and density of the crown. Moreover, this can be adjusted by pruning in different stages. These differences are not taken into account in the recommendations. From observations in the field, it seems that farmers are keeping slender trees on the farm, such as Newbouldia laevis, which provide little shade (Anon., personal communication). It also appears that farmers favour indigenous tree species over exotics (Anon., personal communication). It might be beneficial to use fast growing species, so the farmers see quick results which will motivate them to continue and others to join (Anon., personal communication).

The shade trees should provide benefits to the farmer, by increasing the life span of the cocoa trees and thus allowing them to produce fruits for a longer period. The trees can also provide environmental benefits such as nitrogen-fixation and offer protection from extreme weather events such as storms or droughts. These environmental benefits for the farmer and for biodiversity depend on the farm level design. Moreover, some landscape characteristics, such as streams and sloped need to be taken into account. These requirements need to be combined with the potential benefits for the cocoa farm, meaning that the distribution of trees should also be beneficial for the farmer, for example by border planting to serve as a boundary or as a windbreak. The farmers need to be made aware of the optimal lay-out of trees on their farm, instead of just a recommended number. In fact, if this is not clear, it might be that farmers plant the recommended number of trees in one cluster because this makes management and registration easier. This would not lead to a shaded system but to a mosaic landscape (Ruf, 2011).

The selection of tree species does not only depend on the benefits to cocoa productivity, but they can also provide other benefits in the shape of fruit, medicinal use and timber (Sonwa, Weise, Schroth, & Janssens, 2014). Especially due to an increased demand for timber on the domestic market, this could be very beneficial for cocoa farmers. Of course, this depends on whether farmers have access to and can compete on these markets. Moreover, if farmers would have access to international markets, they could receive a higher price for the timber which could make them more willing to compromise short term gains for long term profits (Ruf 2011).

Integration of shade trees can provide several benefits, but it there are several factors which make it challenging. Firstly, it appears that farmers perceive downsides of shade trees on their farms, such as increased occurrence of pests (Anon., personal communication) and the physical dangers of having tall trees on the farm (e.g. falling branches) (Ruf, 2011) . Moreover, these shade trees require management over several decades to get optimal results. For example, the trees need to be pruned at regular intervals. It is questionable whether farmers will be able to do this, even after receiving training, since the trees will grow very tall. This means that service providers need to be available to assist farmers in this (Anon., personal communication). This is currently not the case, but it could create additional employment opportunities in the communities. When timber trees are ready for harvest, farmers would need to have the knowledge and equipment to cut it themselves or be able to hire a legal logging company. Otherwise, the increased number of trees on farms could bring in more illegal chainsaw companies (Ruf, 2011). Finally, the big time gap between investment in tree planting, in the shape of planting material and time invested in nurturing the seedling, and the return on this investment, make it unattractive for farmers, who discount future returns at a very high rate (Anon., personal communication). This is especially relevant when access to the future returns is not guaranteed, for example because of insecure land or tree tenure (Anon., personal communication). Insaidoo, Ros-tonen, & Acheampong (2013) propose a system of advance payment to reduce the time farmers have to wait for return on their investment.