Understanding and Defining Climate-Smart Cocoa
Extension, Inputs, Yields, and Farming Practices
By Rebecca Ashley Asare, Nature Conservation Research Centre - Forest Trends View PublicationGhana has identified its extensive cocoa cultivation as a major driver of deforestation and forest degradation. The Ghana Cocoa Board is committed to making Ghana the number one best quality producer of cocoa in the world, improving sustainability through a Climate-Smart Cocoa (CSC) approach that includes mitigation, increases in yield, and economic development that centers on land-use planning. This report represents the first time that anyone has specifically defined CSC production practices and measures. In the face of global warming and high consumer demand for climate-smart production systems and products, Ghana’s ability to address agronomic problems resulting from extensive cocoa farming is debated. Economic, adaptation, and food security benefits are anticipated by-products of this improved system.