Raising awareness of the implications of climate change for cash crops

Photo credit: DAPA-CIAT

Cocoa production in Ghana needs to confront heat and drought

by Christian Bunn

How can we go beyond raising awareness of the negative implications of climate change for tropical cash crops and guide policies for adaptation? The project “Mainstreaming CSA practices in cocoa production in Ghana” proposes to use a transect approach to identify sites with high, medium and low climate change impacts and to develop appropriate strategies for each setting. Throughout the process local stakeholders are engaged to develop practices that are well suited to the local decision environment. Ultimately, the project seeks to develop incentives and support mechanisms that will drive farmer uptake of CSA at scale.

Last week at the kick-off workshop DAPA researcher Christian Bunn confronted local partners in Accra with the initial results of his research on the differential climate change impacts on various cocoa growing zones in Ghana. Previous studies had stopped short of providing information to guide adaptation at the required scale. A widely cited study by Peter Läderach and others first drew attention to the likely negative impacts of climatic changes on the main cocoa producers in Ghana and Ivory Coast (Fig. 1). A forthcoming study by Schroth and others (in collaboration with CIAT-DAPA) extended this research to West-Africa and showed that especially increasing dry season temperatures will be an issue.

Read the full article: CIAT-DAPA