'When cocoa money comes into the country, things get better. Life gets easier'

In the fourth article in her occasional 'I am a cocoa farmer series', cocoa scholar Kristy Leissle talks to Ama Ampomaa, whose family has owned a cocoa farm for more than a century and today she and her siblings control around one hundred plots of land around Assin Fosu. To farm most of these, they enter into abunu contracts with long-term tenants. 'Know that there is a lot of profit, a lot of benefit coming from cocoa. Food, cloth, giving a child money for school – anything you need to take care of the family,' she says. Read more

'Cocoa pays for everything'

In the third of her occasional 'I am a cocoa farmer series', cocoa scholar Kristy Leissle talks to Daniel Aboagye, who is not only a farmer but a recorder, or purchasing clerk, for the Kuapa Kokoo licensed cocoa buying company (LBC), so he has a unique insight into the cocoa trade in Ghana. As a father of two he tells her of the struggles of being a farmer to earn a decent wage and how climate change and gold mining is threatening his existence and why the Fairtrade Premium makes a difference. Read more

'After my husband passed away, in 2000, I was advised … that if I plant cocoa, my life is going to be better'

'I am a cocoa farmer' is an occasional series by Dr Kristy Leissle, scholar of the cocoa and chocolate industries. Here she visits Bahati Sanjingu, a cocoa farmer in Tanzania, and hears how she made the transition from growing rice to cocoa beans and earned the respect of other famers for her entrepreneurial skills. Read more

'You, the whites, are eating cocoa. You bring the price … you have to give us a chance to sell it at the price that we want’

‘I am a cocoa farmer’ is the first in an occasional series by Dr Kristy Leissle, scholar of the cocoa and chocolate industries. In each article, Leissle profiles one individual who makes a living growing cocoa, exploring how she or he came to cocoa farming, their relationship with the crop, and its financial impact on their lives, among other issues. Over time, the series will illustrate both the diversity of people who farm cocoa, and the similarities of their circumstances. Read more

World Cocoa Foundation says chocolate companies are committed to tackling causes of child labour

President Richard Scobey recognises research from latest NORC report on child labour in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire’s cocoa regions, but says industry is scaling up its efforts to eradicate farmer poverty. Read more