The College of Basic and Applied Sciences, University of Ghana invites the University Community to its second Lecture Series. The event will be held on Wednesday September 30, 2015 in the Auditorium of the Centre for African Wetlands at 4:00 pm prompt.
The lecture which is being hosted by the School of Agriculture will be delivered by Dr. G. J. Anim-Kwapong, the Executive Director, Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana will deliver the lecture on the topic: “The Cocoa Industry in Ghana: The role of the youth”.
The function will be chaired by Professor Ebenezer Oduro Owusu, Provost, College of Basic and Applied Sciences.
All are cordially invited.
ABSTRACT
The cocoa industry in Ghana contributed US$ 3.3 billion to the national economy in 2013 and over the past decade, has generated on average US$ 2.5 billion per annum. The industry is an example of a successful private-public partnership and the cocoa value chain is well defined. The main activities along the value chain within Ghana are production, handling and transportation of cocoa beans. While the public sector takes responsibility for quality assurance, pest and disease control, research and development, and marketing; the private sector takes responsibility for planting, harvesting, cocoa bean collection and collation, haulage, warehousing and processing at origin. The cocoa sector provides direct employment to over two million people and indirect employment to around three million people. Cocoa production in Ghana is based on smallholder farmers who are the backbone of the cocoa supply chain. Over 90 percent of Ghana’s cocoa is grown on small farms with about 800,000 households growing the crop mostly on farms averaging 2-3 hectares in size. The industry’s biggest competitive advantages include its superior quality cocoa bean which serves as overall global benchmark for many exporting countries. Ghana currently occupies a strong position as the largest producer of high fat content-good flavour beans with few competitors in this segment of the global market. However, its biggest competitive weakness is its low level of farm productivity. The cocoa sector is operating below its potential yield levels with over 60% of cocoa farmers over 50 years old and unwilling to take extra risk in investing in yield improvement strategies. The preponderance of aged farmers in cocoa production has affected labour productivity, acquisition of skills and motivation to use best practices. The willingness of aged farmers to rehabilitate/replant old farms which are over the economic life span of 25-30 years is also affected. These old and unproductive farms represent about 25% of the current cocoa tree stocks. Consequently, cocoa yield per hectare in Ghana has been on average 25 percent less than the average yield level of the ten largest cocoa producing nations and nearly 40 percent below the average yield level of Côte d’Ivoire. Cocoa production benefits from farmers who use judgement or discretion in adjusting their behaviour; such non-routine decision-making can be thought of as an important part of the skill requirement of cocoa farming. High quality cocoa production thus requires motivation and skill to use best practices. Research results show that farms owned by young, energetic and more educated farmers are more productive than those of older farmers who lack the requisite motivation and skills to use best practices and that age is predicted to have a negative impact on adoption of technologies. From the point of view of aged farmers, their children (youth) while not regarding cocoa farming as a preferred occupation may take up cocoa farming as an additional source of income if concrete steps are taken to entice them into farming by addressing socio-economic issues relating to age, land acquisition, finance and yield enhancing policies. In consonance with farmers’ views, COCOBOD is training and encouraging the youth to become the next generation of cocoa farmers for sustainable cocoa production in Ghana through initiatives such as the Young Cocoa Farmers Association. Details of the initiative are discussed from an industry perspective.
PROFILE
GILBERT JOHN ANIM-KWAPONG
Gilbert John Anim-Kwapong holds a Ph.D. in Agro forestry from the University of Wales, Bango U.K, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Crop Science from the University of Ghana. He has several post-graduate diplomas and certificates in Computer and Numeracy in Forestry, Project Planning and Management, Training of Trainers course in Agro forestry for Sustainable Agricultural Production, Natural Resource Management in the humid lowland of West Africa.
He has an extensive experience in management of research projects, research facilities and staff, project implementation, extension education, technology transfer, diversity conservation and environmental sustainability.
He has been a research scientist for over twenty-five years during which he assumed positions as an Assistant Research Scientist, Head of CRIG Sub-station, Akim- Afosu, Chief Research Scientist and Head of the Agronomy Division of the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG), and currently the Executive Director of the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana.
He is a dedicated researcher and an administrator who has attended several international and local conferences/workshops/meetings on cocoa and the environment.
He is an ardent advocate of multidisciplinary approach to research. His research interests are in the area of climate change impact assessment. Adaptation and mitigation in cocoa and coffee production landscapes, shade trees species diversity and roles in cocoa and coffee agro-ecosystems, restoration/rehabilitation of degraded agricultural landscape for sustainable agricultural production, cocoa agro-ecosystem and forest interface studies with emphasis on environmental stability and cocoa and coffee improvement studies
Dr. Anim-Kwapong has more than 40 publications in both local and international journals to his credit.
