Exporting Organic Cocoa & Mangoes Can Create Wealth In Rural Ghana

Author's note: This was written on 3/3/2013. It is being posted today because I was unable to do so at the time.




If the bulk of Ghana's agricultural  produce
 was organically produced, we would be a far healthier people - as we would ingest less of the  cancer-causing synthetic fertilisers and pesticides applied by smallholder  farmers who grow the bulk of the  food we eat.


Our agricultural sector would also earn more from export markets -  helping  to improve our balance of trade and contributing to an increase in  Ghana's GDP in the process.


Ghanaian farmers, such as those producing cocoa and mangoes for export,  would also be better off - as the global demand for organically produced cocoa and mangoes - which command a premium price -  far outstrips supply.


Currently, there are many organic agricultural inputs such as  natural pesticides made from neem seed oil  and organic soil-improving agents that lessen or obviate the need for synthetic  fertilisers,  available on the world market.


Yet, vested interests work hard to keep them from entering Ghana. They also work extremely hard to  ensure  that organic farming never takes hold here.


That is the main reason why those  who succeed in bringing organic agricultural inputs  into Ghana, face such an uphill task persuading  organisations like the Ghana Cocoa Marketing Board (COCOBOD)  to have them tested by state research institutions including  the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG).


Yet, consumers in the nations that are the main buyers of Ghana's cocoa beans are switching to eating organic food for health reasons.


We  cannot ignore that trend forever without Ghana's cocoa beans losing market share in the export markets for cocoa beans eventually.


Put simply, if we don't switch to growing cocoa organically, Ghana   will no longer be considered to be  producers of high quality cocoa beans - the unique selling point of  Ghanaian cocoa beans for decades.


Tiny Cape Verde's private-sector  is taking advantage of this new trend for healthy eating - and some players in the industry there have  carved a niche for themselves as  producers of organic chocolate: exporting their products to the UK and Europe.


Kenyan coffee growers are also exploiting an export  market niche as producers of organic coffee - and gaining extra income from the premium organically produced coffee commands.


An organic fertiliser manufactured in Latvia, has played an important  part in Kenya's coffee industry's switch to organic coffee production. Its effect has to be seen to be believed.


President Mahama can see his dream of mango farming transforming the lives of marginalised young people in the regions covered by SADA becoming a reality if this miraculous organic fertiliser is made available to them by SADA.


The president's National Democratic Congress (NDC) regime can easily achieve its goal of Ghana producing over 1 million tonnes of cocoa beans, if the COCOBOD also makes it available to cocoa farmers in Ghana - and use it in  the so-called high-tech mass-spraying programme.


The present  administration  can transform Ghana's agricultural sector by providing funding for research work to enable the Latvian organic fertiliser to be tested and approved for use in Ghanaian agriculture,
by the  relevant state  research institutions under  the Council for Industrial and Scientific Research; the research departments of the state universities and CRIG.


It will increase yields for farmers, and lessen post-harvest losses -  because it strengthens crops it is applied to when growing and gives them long shelf-life when harvested.


The time has come to break the stranglehold of the companies that supply  synthetic fertilisers and pesticides as well as  other synthetic  agricultural inputs  in Ghana, once and for all.


If they want to continue in business, let them switch to selling organic agricultural inputs - for that is what has a future in a nation whose citizens are now waking up to the dangers of eating food grown with  synthetic fertilisers and pesticides.


President Mahama can also see his dream of wealth being created in rural Ghana on a sustainable basis realised within his tenure, if his administration takes the necessary measures to enable Ghana to  switch to exporting organic cocoa and  mangoes. SADA and COCOBOD hold the key to that.  A word to the wise...


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