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Literature on cocoa production in West Africa indicates that, alongside climate change, factors influencing cocoa production include low soil fertility, high incidence of pests and pathogens, high cost of pesticides, lack of access to improved planting materials, the fluctuating price of cocoa, political instability, and poor farmer education. But in this study, local farmers insisted that most of the problems that affect cocoa production are somehow connected to climate change.
An example is Mr Mesumbe Emmanuel Nkwelle who was a grade II teacher in Cameroon. He went on voluntary retirement in 1993 - more than half a decade before his official retirement time - to fully embrace cocoa farming. His reason was to escape the economic crisis that paralysed the country’s public service. Today he says, "The economic crisis has returned to my household and the cause is climate change."
From one crisis to another
The economy of Cameroon experienced a recession from the mid-1980s to the early 2000s. The result of the economic crisis was increasing prices of basic commodities, trade deficits, and loss of government revenue. The government of Cameroon acknowledged the crisis in 1987. While critics placed the blame on poor government stewardship of the economy, the government pointed fingers at the fall of export commodities. In 1988, President Paul Biya announced that "all our export commodities fell at the same time." By 1990, the majority of civil servants had lost access to subsidized housing, electricity, and telephones; part of the government’s vehicle fleets had been sold; and official working hours had changed.1
Because of disruptions to the public service at the time, many workers and especially those near retirement age opted to leave the service early. The majority of them went straight into cocoa farming. The attraction of cocoa agriculture is that it often allows farmers to plant food crops for subsistence and cocoa for cash on the same parcel of land.
| | "The attraction of cocoa agriculture is that it often allows farmers to plant food crops for subsistence and cocoa for cash on the same parcel of land." | |
"There is no way we could survive staying in public service," explains Mr. Manfred Mokoko, a former secondary school English language teacher who opted for voluntary retirement seven years early. "I saw more advantage in cocoa farming than in teaching because I could use one piece of land to grow food to feed my family and cocoa for my children’s school needs."
But it has not always been a bed of roses for cocoa producers. As the number of people that turned to cocoa farming increased, the production of the beans escalated to unprecedented levels. This led to a fall in prices in the world market. By November 2000, prices were at a 27-year low of $714 per tonne in New York.2 This forced Africa’s biggest producers - Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Ghana, and Nigeria - who account for 70% of the world’s production, to withdraw 250,000 tonnes of cocoa from the market and destroy it.3
By March 2002 cocoa prices had risen again to a comfortable level, a 14-year high, reaching £1,190 a tonne in London.4 The reason was a drastic fall in production due to political instability in Ivory Coast, one of the world’s leading producers. But there was also a slight fall in production in Ghana and Cameroon reportedly due to bad weather.
Bad weather or climate change?
It is well known that cocoa production is highly sensitive to changes in climate, from length and intensity of sunshine, to rainfall and water application, soil condition and temperature due to evapotranspiration effects. It has been reported widely that climate change also plays a major role in altering the development of cocoa pests and pathogens and shifting their interactions.5 This translates into lower crop yields, which in turn impact farm income and livelihoods.
| | "Cocoa production is highly sensitive to changes in climate, from length and intensity of sunshine, to rainfall and water application, soil condition and temperature..." | |
"Rainfall in this area is now a heap of confusion," complains 59-year-old Ahidjo Ngomnkalle. "I have been a cocoa farmer all my life but have never witnessed such confusion in the pattern of rainfall."
Most farmers in southwest Cameroon perceive climate change in terms of changes in rainfall. This is one of the rainiest regions in Cameroon and also the highest producer of cocoa. Experienced cocoa farmers such as Ngomnkalle, who have never had any formal education, claim to have a near perfect understanding of rainfall patterns in the village of Mbabe.
"In the past there were a number of people in this village who could predict the exact day that the first rains would drop from the cheeks of heaven to bless our land and mark the end of the dry season," he continued, "but not anymore. Our climate has gone mad and we don’t know why."
The majority of people who took part in this study, from every cocoa producing region in Cameroon, reported that rainfall patterns in the last 12 years have been unsteady. They said years of extreme rainfall alternate in no particular order with years of drought.
"Not too long ago cocoa farmers prepared ahead of the rainy season," said 52-year old Ajasco Nzeme, "now the rainy season prepares ahead of us. There is no order to what comes first, but what comes last is that the farmers suffer."
Cocoa farmers said some years do come with adequate rainfall but most people fail to maximize the opportunity because of the confusion in rainfall patterns. However, they intimated that good rains result in strong growth and yields of cocoa. Unfortunately, recent rainfall patterns have been either excessive, resulting in a high incidence of black pod disease and yield losses, or insufficient, leading to high seedling mortality and poor yields. In terms of annual rainfall, most farmers said it was decreasing continuously and this did not bode well for their business.
"Cocoa is water," said Ms Albertine Alougou. "From the way the weather is changing, in 20 years cocoa farmers may have to pay water bills both at home and on their farms. Rainfall is decreasing everyday and there is nothing we can do about it. Everything falls like hell in one or two months, and you can forget about it for the rest of the year."
But cocoa farmers in Cameroon are not only concerned about rainfall; they are also worried about temperatures.
In the village of Nanga Eboko in the South Region of Cameroon, Mr Pierre Nvondo is spraying his cocoa. Every now and again, he strikes his shoulders with cocoyam leaves to drive away the flies that could enter his ears or eyes. In some villages these flies are called sun flies because they become most active in the afternoon when the sun is high. Elsewhere they are called chockchockge, a Bakossi word used to describe things that would like to play with you even when you don’t feel like playing.
"Only 10 years ago we would not see these flies before midday," explains Mr Nvondo. "The fact that they start bothering you this early [at 9:30 am] is an indication that climate is changing, temperatures are rising. And the flies are the biggest nuisance you can imagine."
However great a nuisance those flies may be to farmers, they neither affect the growth nor yields of cocoa. Temperature affects both. It hampers replacement of cocoa trees by drying out seedlings.
"This cocoa farm is the only hope my husband left for me when he died 8 years ago," says Ms Margaret Wangobe. "The harvest has dropped because the trees are too old – they were planted 26 years ago. But how do I replace them when the sun keeps burning my seedlings out?"
| | "All respondents blamed climate change for the poor success rate of cocoa seedlings. They complained that the combination of increased temperatures and substantially reduced rainfall meant that cocoa seedlings were being attacked on two fronts." | |
This is becoming a rather serious problem in Cameroon's Centre Region. Of the 550 farmers interviewed in that region, 434 said renewing their cocoa farms is proving more difficult than they expected. They complained that the success rate for cocoa seedlings has dwindled; in reverse order of severity, 20% said it had dwindled to 1 in 5 planted seedlings, 27% reported 1 in 4, and 43% placed it at 1 in 2 planted seedlings. All respondents blamed climate change for the poor success rate of cocoa seedlings. They complained that the combination of increased temperatures and substantially reduced rainfall meant that cocoa seedlings were being attacked on two fronts.
"Climate change is killing my cocoa farm in front of my eyes," lamented Antoine Etundi of Bapende village. "Too much sunshine is burning cocoa seedlings and young cocoa pods while too little rainfall denies young seedlings the water they need to survive. This climate will not give seedlings a chance to replace old trees, and the whole thing is getting worse."
"Some people say we produce less and less cocoa because we are not learned," declares Adolf Mendo in Edea. "But they forget that the number of learned people currently involved in cocoa farming is higher than it has ever been, yet production is falling everyday. As the weather changes so the harvest falls."
Asked to what extent fluctuating prices affect cocoa production, Jean Mwelle echoed the view of several respondents, "Prices are high now, but where is the cocoa? Climate madness has made it difficult for us to track cocoa diseases, so the loss to pests and pathogens is plenty."
Effect on present and future livelihoods
Owners of cocoa farms may be relatively rich but the actual cocoa farmers – those who plant and harvest cocoa – generally come from poor households. This ownership issue may be a little confusing and should be explained.
In most parts of Cameroon the labour intensive nature of cocoa production does not allow for large farm sizes. Hence farm sizes are generally small, ranging from 0.5 to 13 ha. In this survey, 15% of respondents said their farms were more than 10 ha large, 29% said theirs ranged from 5-10 ha, and 56% said their farms were less that 5 ha in size.
But the majority of those farms did not belong to the actual farmers. Most respondents, 56%, called themselves tenants involved in two-party farming where the tenant manages the farm and the proceeds are divided equally between the tenant and the farm owner at the end of the farming season. Most of these farms were owned by civil servants, businesspersons, women (mostly widows), politicians, and people who are too old to farm. A few of the farms, 13%, were mortgaged. The owners have given the farms out to cultivators for a specific time period in return for a specific amount of money. At the end of that period they will take back their farms. Only 25% of respondents owned their farms.
Interestingly the household size of tenant farmers was found to be very large when compared with the other two groups. The average household size for tenant farmers was 6.3 persons as against 5.2 for those who farmed on mortgaged holdings and 3.8 for whose who cultivated the crop on their personal farms. Also, while the majority of tenant farmers had no farm holdings of their own, almost all farm owners reported owning at least one other farm being managed by a tenant.
"My children will find it hot in school this year," said Mr Sone Ekambe of Nyasoso village. By "hot" he was not referring to the temperature but to poverty. "The harvest is terrible and I wonder from where they’ll get their fees." Looking around his farm as if he did not recognise it, he added "This year the rain stopped before it started leaving the sun to burn out the few cocoa pods that managed to sprout. By the time I share this harvest with the farm owner I’ll have only my fingers to take home."
Cocoa farming requires a lot of effort; the farmers do not have time for any other economic activity. Moreover, the majority of them still regard cocoa production as a very lucrative business if production is kept high.
"The problem is no longer that of price," explains Ms Dorine Yangki, "it is a matter of yields. This erratic climate benefits only pathogens and the fungicide companies. We spend much money on fungicides but the changing climate undermines the effectiveness of those medicines and the losses are heavy." But she also added that if the price of fungicides could be passed on to consumers of cocoa products, as in the petroleum sector, "perhaps farmers would not be so miserable."
For some farmers, the best way to secure their children’s future is to teach them how to cultivate cocoa. The children learn the trade that has sustained thousands of farmers for generations. But with climate change rendering the sustainability of this trade doubtful, some farmers are disturbed about the future of their children.
| | "The children learn the trade that has sustained thousands of farmers for generations. But with climate change rendering the sustainability of this trade doubtful, some farmers are disturbed about the future of their children." | |
"My father and his father planted cocoa on this farm," Mr Solomon Ekoto narrates. "I just wonder whether my son will be able to pass this farm on to his son. If the weather continues to change like this, there may be no rain when my son’s son is ready to farm. And you cannot have cocoa without rain."
Cocoa farming, which has been an important lifeline in the recent past for thousands of households in Cameroon, is becoming a death trap. Many poor people want to get involved, but the odds are gradually turning against them. Those who left the public service and embraced cocoa farming in order to escape the economic crisis were well prepared for many factors: low soil fertility, high incidence of pests and pathogens, high cost of pesticides, lack of access to improved planting materials, the fluctuating price of cocoa, political instability, and poor farmer education. But were they prepared for climate change? Our findings indicate they were not.
Judges Mpako is an ecosystem and agro-biodiversity analyst for the Africa and Madagascar Regional Office of ResearchTour. He is also editor for the Western Section of AfricaFiles. He can be reached by email at judgesmpako@yahoo.com.
Ivo Ngome until recently was research scholar for the United Nations Environment Programme-World Conservation Monitoring Centre in Cambridge-UK. He is currently a GIS and Informatics Analyst at the RSPB headquarters in Sandy-UK. His permanent email address is ngomeiswell@yahoo.com.
1. Wikipedia, Economic crisis of Cameroon (Retrieved online on 10/09/2008) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_crisis_of_Cameroon.
2. Fairtrade Foundation, Cocoa Prices Rise but Farmers Stay Poor. 22 July 2002. (Retrieved online 08/01/09) http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/press_office/press_releases_and_statements/...
3. BBC News, Cocoa destroyed to boost price. Saturday, 15 July 2000. (Retrieved online on 25/10/2008) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/835422.stm.
4. BBC News, Cocoa price hits 14-year-high. Monday, 11 March 2002. (Retrieved online on 20/10/2008) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1866978.stm.
5. Anim-Kwapong, G.J., and E.B. Frimpong, Vulnerability of agriculture to climate change. Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana. (Retrieved online on 10/09/2008) http://www.nlcap.net/fileadmin/NCAP/Countries/Ghana/...
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