Our work in Ghana began in 2002. A time when our customers were starting to really get curious about chocolate and its origins which matched our own increasing passion for knowing the whole story, the real story. Customers were starting to ask questions about how the cocoa is grown, and the lifestyles of the cocoa growers themselves. And to ask whether the balance was right, to question their own consumer values and to challenge us to provide some answers.
Never a team to do things by halves, we promptly dispatched company director, Lynn Setchell, to Ghana, the world’s second largest cocoa-producing country. Lynn tells her story:
“My first trip to Ghana really established in me the desire for us to be involved first hand. We had looked at the very respectable achievements of Fair Trade and the Ethical Trading Initiative, but it was clear to me that we needed to do something that better fit our own business culture…more hands-on. We had the opportunity to do something very real right there, in the villages of the Kwahu Praso region, which would immediately make a difference to hundreds of lives. The Hotel Chocolat board needed no persuading and I have worked with our partners in Ghana each year to decide which projects we would support and how. Over the 5 years since then I have visited our projects every year, avidly encouraged by a very supportive and engaged Club membership, and have been astonished by the impact of the changes I have seen through our involvement.”
In the early days Lynn and the Ghana team worked on building our relationships with the communities and the vitally-important cultural structure of chiefs, elders and interpreters. We provided local schools with educational materials, and the children with much-needed uniforms to enable them to attend school without being ashamed of their forlorn clothing. We repaired local buildings and we provided the cocoa farmers with tools to help them maintain their farms.
However, it rapidly became apparent that there was a bottomless pit of opportunities for us to provide financial relief for. Indeed, on Lynn’s second visit she was met by a group of disgruntled villagers who had virtually drawn up a shopping list of demands that they expected us to fulfill. “Pave the local roads, bring electricity to our villages, send our children to university in England,” they cried. On that trip, Lynn talked at length with the decision-makers in the community about the best way to bring sustainable benefits to the area.
“I wanted our support to be seen as a ladder to self-help rather than a crutch to be leaned heavily upon. And I wanted the communities to buy-in to the fact that the projects would only be successful if they got involved and worked hard to support them, rather than waiting for cash handouts. The truth is, on that second visit, I got pretty angry with them all. It was a turning point really; I wasn’t there to be a kindly lady dishing out cash bonuses and kissing babies. I think it was the point at which they realized that I meant business. That Hotel Chocolat was committed to working with them, and that it was worth them making the effort to reap the rewards that must surely follow.”
That has been the basis of our support ever since, and through their growing trust of Lynn and the team we work with on the ground, the farmers have taken up the challenge and are driving their own projects. Read on to find out more about the specifics.
Hardier pods and increasing yields – music to a farmer’s earsOne of our most successful projects has been the raising of hundreds of thousands of cocoa seedlings for subsidized sale to farmers in the local community. Lynn had heard on the earliest visit that the yield from the elderly cocoa trees on many farms was declining year on year, and the constant problem of disease in the cocoa pods was further exacerbating the situation. Cocoa farmers were able to purchase new seedlings, but this involved a long and expensive trip to the research centre, together with a bumpy ride home which often destroyed the fragile little plants making the journey. No wonder the farmers, often existing at subsistence level themselves, were reluctant to take the risk.
By setting up a seedlings nursery in Osuben village, right in the middle of the poorest community, we were able to raise our own crop of healthy plants. We also ensured that our seedlings were a new, hardier variety of hybrid cocoa which would be more resistant to disease. These seedlings we sold to the local farmers at subsidized rates, and used the income to buy further seedlings for the following year.
Such was the interest of the farmers, after much initial skepticism, that they began to get involved themselves, competing to run nursery schemes in their own farms, tending the plants for the crucial first 3 months of life when they are the most vulnerable, and then setting up mini distribution networks of their own. David, our farm manager in Osuben beams with pride, “After our humble beginnings of 8000 seedlings raised in the first year, we now have 10 satellite nurseries raising more than 100,000 seedlings each year, across 2 different regions of Ghana. Last year my son was champion nursery manager, winning the prize from Hotel Chocolat for the best-managed farm.”
And the beauty of this project is that it is now virtually self-funding. We provide the set-up funds for each new nursery but the established areas are self-sustaining, and the records show that more than 100 farming families have benefited from greater crop coverage and improved yield. And when your existence depends on the quality of your annual harvest, with pretty much no alternative plan, that’s good news for everyone.
Attracting new talentLady cocoa farmer Teresa is a newcomer to the cocoa-growing business, having been given the opportunity to develop some land owned by her uncle. We first met Teresa in 2005 when she won one of our annual incentive prizes – a sewing machine to help clothe her family – awarded for the best-kept farm. Teresa had previously purchased a few hundred seedlings from Osuben nursery manager, David, and was set in 2006 for a few thousand more.
We were delighted therefore, to hear from the team on the ground that Teresa had volunteered some of her land for a regeneration project that we wanted to test, and on Lynn’s last visit she caught up with Teresa to find out how it had all gone.
Overgrown and infertile areas were cleared, soil-tested, and then planted with Mukuna bean seeds and left to develop for 3 months. At the end of this period, the lush green carpet of Mukuna plants covering the land was cut down, and the foliage left to decompose on the land. The plants bring nitrogen back into the infertile soil, and the decomposed plants create the right ground composition for nurturing young seedlings. At the end of the 3 month period we tested the soil again; the land was proven fertile, and cocoa seedlings were reintroduced to the previously hostile land.
There are now many farmers interested in taking up the opportunity to regenerate their land. Clearing overgrown farm areas is back-breaking work, and the possibility of a poor yield at the end of it all is a disincentive to many. With this proven method of regenerating the land, then the effort of clearance is worth investing, and ultimately increased cocoa coverage will lead to further improved livelihoods.
Teresa, for one, was absolutely delighted with her extended farming capacity, and as the Hotel Chocolat team departed, she was already in negotiation with David for this year’s seedlings procurement!
Fit for the jobIt’s easy enough for us to drop into the doctor’s office when there’s something troubling us. But for your average Ghanaian cocoa farmer, the first signs of ill health could be the start of a journey which ends up with the mortgage of his entire year’s harvest.
When the community chiefs asked us to help get their villagers into the newly-emerging Ghanaian Health Insurance Scheme, we were concerned about that crutch of support. How would farmers ever be able to help themselves if they were dependent upon us for their premiums? This was something which Hotel Chocolat’s director, Lynn, debated at length on one of her annual visits to our projects there.
“I’m pleased with the results of our health insurance support. We’ve seen nearly 1000 families getting themselves onto the ladder of self-help. We committed to a 5-year program during which we promised to pay a decreasing proportion of the farmers’ premiums year on year. By the end of the 5 years we hoped that there would be a significant number of farmers who had been able to save up for themselves during the year, and understand the benefits of investing in the insurance.”
And that’s exactly what has happened. Although we lost more than 100 of the poorest families from the scheme in the first year, several hundred others are now well on their way to paying their full annual premium. And others, more sceptical about getting involved, have seen the benefits of health insurance, as their friends in the scheme have received outpatient treatment for snake bites, machete laceration and other previously unaffordable common treatments, as well as the occasional inpatient operation to treat hernias – common in farmers whose days include heavy manual labour.
With the health insurance scheme we have found the benefits to be just as much about awareness raising within the community – to really help villagers understand the benefit of investing in insurance, as it is about the treatment. But we could only know and understand that by being there and seeing it for ourselves. It’s what makes it real for us, and for our Tasting Club members.
Education, education, educationCocoa farming runs in the family, you know. A typical cocoa farmer owns a smallholding which was probably passed down to him through the generations of his ancestors. All the cocoa growing expertise of the generations has been handed down with it to ensure that every new generation can continue to make its livelihood from the golden pods.
That’s just fine, as a traditional fireside yarn goes, but we’d still be plowing the fields behind a horse if we all worked that way. Ghana has one of the finest Cocoa Research Institutes in the world, at the forefront of development when it comes to cocoa planting, pollinating and farm maintenance. But in between this fine Institute and our man in the village lies an enormous gaping void of opportunity. It was one we knew we could do something about.
“We heard from our friends on the ground in Ghana that the Research Institute provides very thorough training for Extension Officers, but there are simply no funds for sending them out into the field. These guys have all the best practice know-how but are restricted from spreading the word because no one can afford their services. I knew that we could do something about this…” Lynn explains.
We furnished Joseph Kwabe, the Extension Officer for the Kwahu Praso region where we work, with a brand new motorcycle to help him get about, a cell phone for those crucial inter-village communications, and most importantly, an income to support him in his work. Now Joseph is spreading the word in more than 20 villages. His commitment to regular visits and his natural authority means that he is gaining the respect of even the most traditional practitioners on the farms. Small steps … big impact.
