In or out?: Exploring selection processes of farmers in cocoa sustainability standards and certification programmes in Ghana
The sustainability of the global cocoa sector is currently being tested by acute
deforestation, rampant poverty among cocoa farmers and fears of future cocoa supply
shortages. Cocoa Sustainability Standards and their subsequent Certifications (SSC) are
seen as a win-win solution to these challenges for both farmers and the industry.
Nevertheless, questions regarding who is able to participate and potentially benefit from
such interventions and, just as importantly, who is not, remain under-researched. Taking
Ghana, the world’s second-largest producer of certified cocoa, as a case study, this
thesis draws on actor and network approaches (Long, 1989; Latour, 1987), theory-based
evaluation (Weiss, 1997; Pawson and Tilley, 2004) and the Sustainable Rural
Livelihoods framework (Scoones, 1998) to unpack selection processes. It uses primary
qualitative data from industry informants and farmers from the Brong Ahafo region, as
well as national level secondary quantitative survey data to understand how farmers are
externally selected, through programme placement and participant targeting, and selfselected into SSC programmes.
Findings suggest that SSC placement is business-oriented when programmes are driven
by SSC implementing actors, with farmer-centered criteria gaining influence when
funding and certifying actors are involved. In terms of targeting, farmers lacking land
entitlements, like sharecroppers and their wives, tend to be left out of SSC related
activities and the distribution of benefits, even when producing certified cocoa. Further,
farmers’ dependence on credit determines their selling strategies and therefore their selfselection in or out of SSC programmes, when participation is conditional on selling to a
particular buyer. In the absence of selling conditionality, selection is shaped by the
farmers’ ability and willingness to adopt the standards.
Overall, better-off farmers are more likely to participate in SSC programmes, while
landless, credit-dependent and isolated farmers tend to be left out, suggesting that if
SSC are to advance the interests of both farmers and industry, issues of inclusiveness
need to be addressed both at the policy and implementation level.
Area of focus: Cocoa
Author(s): Dafni Skalidou
Organisation/institution: UEA