Ghana’s cocoa farmers push back against new laws

Ghanaian cocoa farmers are pushing back against a newly passed law that restricts how they can use their own land, urging President John Dramani Mahama to withhold his assent until they have been properly consulted, reports TimesLIVE. The Ghana Cocoa Board Bill, 2026, was approved by Ghana’s Parliament in late July. It gives cocoa farms ‘protected’ status and bars anyone, including farmers, from converting cocoa farms for other uses without approval from the market regulatory body, except for board-sanctioned rehabilitation. Violators face fines and possible prison terms of up to 20 years. The Bill is aimed at curbing the conversion of cocoa land for mining and other crops, a trend that is contributing to Ghana’s declining cocoa output. Ghana and neighbouring Ivory Coast produce half the world’s cocoa. The Ghana Co-operative Cocoa Farmers and Marketing Association Limited, an umbrella body for cocoa farmer co-operatives, said it supported measures to protect farms but wanted several provisions reviewed and better explained to growers before the Bill became law. Its administrator, Moses Djan Asiedu, said farmers were especially concerned about land that had become commercially unproductive, and whether replacing cocoa with other crops in such places could expose them to prosecution. The farmers’ concerns echo objections raised by minority lawmakers. The cocoa regulatory body has rejected the criticism. Jerome Sam, head of public relations, said the minority’s objections were politically motivated and that the Bill was drafted to help farmers.

Full TimesLIVE report