Chronic sources of low cocoa production in Ghana: new insights from meta-analysis of old survey data

Francis Tsiboe

doi:10.1017/age.2021.3

Abstract

Abstract Several studies have tried to estimate the productivity and input use efficiency of cocoa farmers in Ghana, but they shed limited light on their chronic nature and other sources of low production. This study extends the literature by analyzing a unique nationally representative sample that constitutes 30 years of production. The results showed that pure farmer technical inefficiency is not only 8 percent points larger than the regional technology gap, but also consistently dominated the overall performance of farmers from 1987-2017. The policy implication of this finding at face value suggests that improving farmer managerial skills could increase output.

Highlights

Since its introduction in Ghana in the 1880s, cocoa (Theobroma cacao) has transformed the country’s agricultural sector and plays a significant role in the Ghanaian economy
While the literature devoted to the technical efficiency (TE) of cocoa production in Ghana is limited in the possibility of heterogeneous technology, the analysis presented so far is confined to only one season
The study deliberates in detail the spatiotemporal dynamics of the production function parameters, technology gaps, and TE among Ghanaian cocoa farmers, and provides alternative policy targeting

Summary

Introduction

Since its introduction in Ghana in the 1880s, cocoa (Theobroma cacao) has transformed the country’s agricultural sector and plays a significant role in the Ghanaian economy. Based on data from FAOSTAT, Ghana’s share in global cocoa production peaked at about 38 percent in 1964/1965, making the country the largest cocoa producer globally for that season. About half a century later, Ghana’s share declined by about 50 percent to only 19 percent during the 2015/2016 season, making it the second-largest producer globally after the Ivory Coast. The decline in Ghana’s cocoa production in the 1960s has generally been attributed to price and exchange rate distortions in the country’s cocoa and agricultural sector, poor maintenance culture, depletion of soil nutrients, and biotic and abiotic stress (Kolavalli and Vigneri 2017)

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