Land Tenure Security: A Critical Factor for Sustainable Cocoa Production, yet receives no policy attention

The importance securing land tenure for land users in the customary land sector in Ghana, especially for farmers engaged in cocoa and other perennial crops production, has gained a lot of attention in recent times. Cocoa is one of the important cash crops in Ghana and contributes significantly to the country’s total foreign exchange earnings coming second only to Cote D’Ivoire.

The cocoa industry in Ghana supports over 700,000 farmers in the country’s southern tropical belt. Achieving secured land rights for farmers is therefore an all-encompassing endeavor that requires collaborative efforts by the Traditional Authorities, the Private and Public sector actors in the cocoa industry.

Cocoa has a unique taste and almost everyone loves and uses the products made out of it be it the chocolate, beverages, butter etc.

Unfortunately, cocoa farmers do not only deal with the impact of climate change, but suffer the negative impacts and risks emanating from land tenure insecurity. Most farmers have no access to land documentation services and therefore are unable to secure their land rights through proper documentation.

COLANDEF and OXFAM GHANA, two nonprofit organizations, are partnering to dialogue and advocate for attention to the land tenure challenges in cocoa production and establish the necessary collaborations with all the stakeholders, to support in addressing the land tenure challenges in cocoa production in Ghana.

The drivers of land tenure insecurity are institutional in nature and therefore securing land rights for coco farmers requires institutional attention and collaboration.