Climate-Smart Cocoa in Ghana: How Ecological Modernisation Discourse Risks Side-Lining Cocoa Smallholders

Felix Nasser,William K. Dumenu,Victoria A. Maguire-Rajpaul,Grace Y. Wong

doi:10.3389/fsufs.2020.00073

Abstract

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) aims to transform and reorient farming systems to decrease greenhouse gas emissions, boost adaptive capacity, and improve productivity while supporting incomes and, ostensibly, food security. In Ghana – the world’s second biggest cocoa producer – the cocoa sector is challenged by increasing global cocoa demand, climate change impacts, as well as mounting consumer pressure over cocoa’s deforestation. Climate-smart cocoa (CSC) has emerged to address these challenges as well as to improve smallholder incomes. As with CSA more widely, there are concerns that CSC discourses will override the interests of cocoa smallholders, such as tenure rights, and lead to inequitable outcomes. To better understand if and how the implementation of CSC in Ghana can meet its lofty ambitions, we examine 1) the dominant CSC discourses as perceived by stakeholders, and their reflection in policy and practice, and 2) subsequent implications for cocoa smallholders through an equity lens. Through semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with key stakeholders in Ghana’s cocoa sector, we find overwhelming consensus for an ecological modernisation discourse with the promise of a triple wins narrative that simultaneously stops deforestation, supports climate mitigation and adaptation, and increases smallholder livelihoods. Moreover, we find that implementing the CSC concept on the ground has generally converged around ‘sustainable intensification’ and private-sector-led partnerships that aspire to generate a ‘win-win’ for environment and productivity objectives, but potentially at the expense of delivering equitable outcomes that serve smallholders’ interests. We find that the success of CSC and the overly simplistic sustainable intensification narrative is constrained by the lack of clear tree tenure rights, complexities around optimal shade trees levels, potential rebound effects regarding deforestation, and the risks of agrochemical-dependence. Nevertheless, local governance mechanisms such as the Community Resource Management Area Mechanisms (CREMAs) may give cocoa smallholders a stronger voice to shape policy. However, we caution that the discursive power of dominant private sector actors may risk side-lining equity and challenges that could be detrimental to the long-term wellbeing of Ghana’s approximately 800,000 cocoa smallholders.

Highlights

Industrial agriculture emits around 30% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (Tubiello et al, 2013) with the rate increasing at around 1% per annum (Lamb et al, 2016), but it is vulnerable to climate change impacts (Vermeulen et al, 2012; Nelson et al, 2014; Tubiello et al, 2015; IPBES, 2018)
For civic environmentalism, which calls for increased participation of marginalized groups in policy processes, accountability, and a focus on equity and justice issues, we focused on indicative expressions and meanings such as “secure tree tenure or equitable benefit sharing.”
A definition commonly referred to is provided by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on climate-smart agriculture (CSA) 2013: 1. sustainably increasing agricultural productivity and incomes; 2. adapting and building resilience to climate change; 3. reducing and/or removing greenhouse gass emissions, where possible

Summary

Introduction

Industrial agriculture emits around 30% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (Tubiello et al, 2013) with the rate increasing at around 1% per annum (Lamb et al, 2016), but it is vulnerable to climate change impacts (Vermeulen et al, 2012; Nelson et al, 2014; Tubiello et al, 2015; IPBES, 2018). Agricultural expansion into tropical rainforest has been identified as a substantial driver of global GHG emissions and local climatic changes (Lawrence and Vandecar, 2015). Critics fear the continuation or reinforcement of the current, in their opinion, highly inequitable agricultural systems, which are based on external inputs, the dominance of multinational actors, the exploitation of nature, and profiting from the most vulnerable people (Climate Smart Agriculture CONCERNS, 2015; Taylor, 2018)

Methods

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Discussion

Conclusion