11,000 Cocoa farmers to benefit from climate-smart agroforestry project

Over 11,000 cocoa farmers in the Western and Western North regions are set to benefit from a 20-year climate-smart agroforestry initiative aimed at boosting cocoa resilience, improving livelihoods, and combating climate change.

The initiative involves planting about 84 timber trees and six fruit trees per hectare to cover 17,000 hectares of cocoa farms across Bia East, Bia West, Juaboso and Wassa Amenfi West districts.

Funded through the Livelihoods Carbon Fund 3 and certified by Gold Standard — a globally recognised carbon certification body — it seeks to sequester 1.5 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide (MtCO₂) while improving biodiversity, increasing household incomes, and creating employment through the planting of timber and fruit trees.

Workshop  

Agro Eco, an international non-governmental organisation (NGO), unveiled the project at a national stakeholders’ workshop held in Accra last Friday.

The event brought together over 30 participants from government agencies, the private sector, technical partners, and community representatives.

The workshop served as a platform to discuss implementation strategies, stakeholder roles, and the potential of agroforestry to contribute to Ghana’s climate commitments. It also featured presentations on lessons from previous pilot interventions.

In addition to the national event in Accra, district-level sessions have also been held to engage local stakeholders in preparation for the rollout.

Significance

The Project Manager, Wilberforce Amoh, explained that the planting of shade trees within cocoa agroforestry systems would enable the capture and storage of atmospheric carbon, helping mitigate climate change while boosting farm resilience.

“The shade trees will increase the resilience of the cocoa farms, while fruit trees will provide additional sources of income and nutrition,” he said, adding that the intervention would boost household income from both cocoa and other sources.

Though the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) currently recommends 40 shade trees per hectare to provide up to 40 per cent shade, Mr Amoh said Agro Eco’s research had indicated that 90 shade trees per hectare could still provide the ideal shade level, provided the correct tree species and planting design were adopted.

“The shade level would be similar to what is recommended by the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG),” he added.

Youth teams

The project manager further explained that to ensure proper implementation, specially trained youth teams, aged between 18 and 35, would be responsible for planting the trees.

These community-based teams would be employed by the project and trained in key agroforestry practices.

Mr Amoh revealed that the use of youth teams over the past five years has resulted in an 80 per cent tree survival rate—significantly higher than the national average of 50 per cent.

The model also provides income and employment opportunities for young people in cocoa-growing communities.

He also stated that the selected districts were chosen due to Agro Eco’s previous engagements under the Trees in Cocoa Agroforestry (TiCA) pilot project, which introduced shaded cocoa practices on 1,000 hectares.