The World Bank has committed approximately $75 million to a major cocoa rehabilitation initiative in Ghana aimed at restoring about 25,000 hectares of cocoa farms affected by disease and declining productivity.
The funding, mobilised under the West Africa Food Systems Resilience Programme, will support the replacement of diseased and ageing cocoa trees with improved, high-yielding and disease-resistant varieties, while promoting better farm management practices among farmers.
Speaking at a World Bank Civil Society Organisation engagement on food security in Accra, Agricultural Economist at the World Bank Ghana, Ashwini Sebastian, said the cocoa rehabilitation project forms part of broader efforts to strengthen food systems resilience across West Africa.
“The West Africa Food Systems Resilience Programme, financed by the World Bank and implemented by the Government of Ghana, has enabled us to leverage grant financing,” she said, adding that seed funding from the Norwegian government is being deployed to support key agricultural value chains.
Dr Sebastian described the cocoa component as a flagship intervention under the programme. “We are putting in almost 75 million dollars to rehabilitate 25,000 hectares of cocoa farms that have been affected by disease,” she said. “Our immediate target is to restore about 5,000 hectares by July.”
Ghana’s cocoa sector has been under increasing pressure in recent years due to swollen shoot disease, ageing tree stocks and the effects of climate variability, all of which have contributed to declining yields and reduced farmer incomes.
In addition to cocoa rehabilitation, the programme is also supporting seed system development in selected clusters, including trials of improved crop varieties capable of withstanding dry-season conditions, particularly in northern Ghana. The initiative further includes the provision of cashew seedlings to farmers as part of efforts to diversify income sources and strengthen agricultural livelihoods.
Analysts say large-scale rehabilitation is essential to sustaining Ghana’s position as one of the world’s leading cocoa producers and to safeguarding foreign exchange earnings derived from cocoa exports.
