Ghanaian Cocoa farmers encouraged to shape fiscal reforms through informed participation

Ghanaian cocoa farmers are being urged to enhance their understanding of modern fiscal reforms transpiring in the cocoa value chain.

Joseph Otchere Osei, Project Officer at SEND Ghana, believes that the inclusion of farmers' voices in decision-making processes related to fiscal reforms in the cocoa sector is crucial.

He emphasizes the need for Ghanaian farmers to gain a comprehensive understanding of the potential advantages and disadvantages of these reforms to ensure their meaningful participation.

The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has the primary responsibility to ensure that a viable fiscal policy is put in place to support the growth and sustainability of the cocoa sector across the country, he mentioned.

He explained that COCOBOD's strategic tax cuts on export duties on cocoa exported out of the country to the international market for sale could help turn around the current consistent financial losses that COCOBOD is experiencing.

Speaking at a capacity building workshop under the theme “Understanding the Fiscal Regime in the Cocoa sector” organized by SEND Ghana under OXFAM funded project titled FAIR FOR ALL in Accra.

The workshop, which gathered over 30 farmer cooperatives and civil society actors, aimed to enhance the capacity of civil society organizations and private sector stakeholders within the cocoa value chain to enable them to review and suggest revisions to the modern fiscal reforms in the sector.

Reforms
The Project Officer mentioned that documents from the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) indicate that the organization spent close to a billion Ghana cedis last year to rehabilitate aged cocoa farms and those ravaged by swollen shoot virus disease (SSVD) to help increase national production in the short to medium term.

“Sector players have raised concerns about the amount, which is about GHS 943 million into cocoa rehabilitation.

“Also, some farmers and Licensed Cocoa Buying Companies (LBCs) raised concerns about the producer pricing and the source of funding for purchasing the cocoa from farmers.

“Unfortunately, farmers do not have in-depth understanding of the modern fiscal regime of the cocoa sector even if it was available; the confusion is worsened by changing world market prices amongst others,” he said.

Advocacy
For his part, Director of Technical Operations, Advocates for Biodiversity Conservation, Vincent Awotwe-Pratt indicates that cocoa farmers need more education when it comes to cocoa trading and pricing mechanisms.

He is worried that the cocoa industry plays a significant role and despite Ghana being the second-largest cocoa-producing country in the world, human rights abuses, environmental degradation, weak inclusive governance and inequity in cocoa pricing and income characterize the sector.

“The cocoa policy in Ghana is opaque and cocoa farmers have no influence on the pricing system; cocoa farmers in Ghana have to accept the farmgate price announced by government regardless of whether they can survive with it or not.

“The complexity of pricing mechanism calls for more education and training for farmers and farmer cooperatives across the country,” he said.

Farmers
Executive Member of the Young Cocoa Farmers Association, Assin Fosu in the Central Region Mr. Emanuel Aborakwah made a plead to SEND Ghana and NGOs working within the cocoa value chain to continue to educate farmers and farmer cooperatives on the need to understand the Tax systems and pricing mechanism.