Influencing Policy for Sustainable Cocoa Landscapes in Ghana

General

In Ghana, we aim to agree on better policies for planted and naturally occurring trees and land tenure arrangements, to enable cocoa farmers to adopt good agricultural practices. Cocoa farmer organisations, Chiefs, land committee, queen mothers, assembly members, private companies, research institutions and CBOs of Sefwi Wiawso were engaged in dialogue. Jointly recommendations for policies, by-laws and norms for on-farm tree ownership and land access security were formulated and agreed. A new lease agreement document that defines rights and obligations of tenant cocoa farmers and traditional authorities (landowners) is about to get finalized, allowing for automatic renewal of forty years and giving cocoa farmers more certainty on their land rights. We provided practical support to 4 farmer organisations and 5 CBOs to raise their knowledge around land and tree ownership and acquisition policies. Particularly women’s access to land has been on the agenda in 20 communities to prepare them for the stakeholder dialogue and meaningful participation.