By Alex Ababio,
ADIEMBRA, Eastern Region — The excavator’s metal teeth tore through the soil where cocoa trees once stood, their pods promising a future that never arrived. Kwaku Mensah watched in silence, his arms folded across his chest. He was not angry. He could not afford to be.
“Why wouldn’t I sell my cocoa farm to the miners?” the 58-year-old farmer from Adiembra in the Abuakwa South Municipality told me, his voice steady but weary. “The government is unable to pay me, and the price has also been reduced drastically.”
Between November 2025 and mid-March 2026, nearly 80 farmers across seven communities in Ghana’s Eastern Region have sold entire cocoa farms or portions of their land to illegal miners, known as galamseyers. Some received between GH¢40,000 and GH¢170,000 per acre. Others entered profit-sharing “load” arrangements where miners keep 70 percent of the gold-bearing soil while farmers receive 30 percent.
Mensah chose the latter. “I still believe the land has more gold,” he said, glancing at the muddy pit where his two-acre farm once stood. “Cocoa gave me 30 years. Maybe gold will give me the retirement cocoa could not.”
The findings come from a field study by Save the Mining Communities-Ghana (SMC-GH), a national non-governmental organization working in mining-affected areas. Lead researcher Andrews Kwame Perprem presented the data to stakeholders, warning that the trend represents not just an environmental crisis but a fundamental collapse of the cocoa economy.
“There is an urgent need for government intervention,” Perprem told me in an interview. “If this trend continues, we risk not only the collapse of cocoa farming in these communities but also a deepening cycle of poverty and environmental destruction.”
The Numbers Behind the Decision: A 29 Percent Price Cut and GH¢32.91 Billion in Debt
To understand why farmers are selling, one must first understand what they are running from.
On 12 February 2026, the government announced a reduction in the cocoa producer price from GH¢3,625 to GH¢2,587 per 64kg bag—a drop of GH¢1,038, nearly 29 percent. For a farmer producing 100 bags in a season, that represents a loss of GH¢103,800 in annual income. For a country where the average cocoa farmer cultivates just 2.5 hectares and produces fewer than 10 bags per year, the impact is even more devastating.
But the price cut is only half the story.
Across cocoa-growing communities in the Eastern Region, farmers report they have not been paid since November 2025. Some arrears date back to October. The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) inherited GH¢32.91 billion in debt, including USD commitments of $481 million, according to COCOBOD Chief Executive Officer Dr. Randy Abbey.
“We can appreciate the concerns, pain, and apprehension,” Dr. Abbey acknowledged in February 2026. But for farmers like Mensah, appreciation does not pay school fees.
The World Bank estimates that cocoa supports approximately 800,000 farm families in Ghana, with an estimated 7 percent of the population directly dependent on the crop. Each farmer supports an average of six dependents, meaning nearly five million Ghanaians rely directly on cocoa for their survival. When the price drops by 29 percent and payments stop, the ripple effect touches millions.
At Obotumpan in the Eastern Region, Cynthia Abena Agyeiwaa told the Ghanaian Watch that her children could not attend school because she could not sell her cocoa. “Yesterday, my children could not go to school because I couldn’t sell my cocoa,” she said. “I was frustrated because it is my source of income as far as my children’s education is concerned.”
At Ampedwee, Emmanuel Kpodo, a single parent, said his five bags of cocoa had been with a purchasing clerk since November. “There is no sign of getting money. I am deeply dissatisfied,” he said.
The Minority in Parliament has demanded the immediate payment of over GH¢10 billion owed by COCOBOD to Licensed Buying Companies. In a February 2026 press conference, Dr. Isaac Yaw Opoku, Ranking Member on the Food, Agriculture and Cocoa Affairs Committee, stated that LBCs are financially paralyzed because COCOBOD has defaulted on reimbursements for cocoa already purchased and delivered.
The Minority made a startling claim: “For the first time in the history of this country, cocoa farmers had to postpone Christmas celebrations because they had not been paid for their produce.”
The ‘Load’ Arrangement: A Faustian Bargain That Destroys the Future
Not all farmers sell outright. The SMC-GH study found that some prefer profit-sharing arrangements known locally as “load.” Under this system, miners assume all operational costs. They extract gold-bearing soil, process it, and retain 70 percent of the proceeds. The farmer receives 30 percent.
This option is particularly attractive to farmers who believe their land holds significant gold deposits. It requires no upfront investment from the farmer and offers the possibility of ongoing income rather than a one-time payment.
But the arrangement comes with a hidden cost: the land is destroyed. Unlike cocoa, which can produce for decades—a well-maintained cocoa tree can produce pods for 50 to 60 years—a mined-out plot is rendered barren. The topsoil, accumulated over millennia, is stripped away. The microbial life that sustained plant growth is destroyed. Heavy metals contaminate what remains.
Reclaiming just one hectare of galamsey-devastated land costs approximately US$48,000, according to Paa Kwesi Schandorf, Media Relations Officer at the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources.
“If you want to reclaim a single hectare, you are looking at about $48,000,” Schandorf told Joy Prime on 6 February 2026. “So we can begin to do the math. $48,000 multiplied by 5,500—that is how cost-intensive it is to reclaim a single hectare of land that has been devastated.”
He confirmed that 5,500 hectares of land currently require reclamation. Only 320 hectares have been restored so far, facilitated by Newmont Ghana. That means 5,180 hectares remain barren, representing a reclamation cost of over US$248 million—funding that has not been allocated.
The government has made efforts. In February 2026, Minister of Lands and Natural Resources Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah inspected the successful reclamation of 800 acres at Nyakumase, near Manso Adubia in the Amansie South District. The site, once scarred by open pits and buried cocoa farms, now hosts rows of cassia and teak saplings.
“We thought the land was gone forever,” said Kwaku Mensah (a different farmer with the same name), whose family lost its cocoa farm to illegal mining. “Now, with the trees coming back, we can dream again of farming and raising our families here.”
But 800 acres—approximately 324 hectares—is a fraction of what has been lost. Nationwide, an estimated 1.2 million hectares of farmland have been destroyed by illegal mining. Over 30,000 hectares of cocoa farms were lost to galamsey in 2025 alone. The 800 acres reclaimed represents just 0.027 percent of the total farmland destroyed.
A Study in Contrasts: Two Farmers, One Impossible Choice
In the village of Akutuase, Asante Akim North Municipality, Isaac Opoku has refused to sell. The 62-year-old farmer stood in his remaining cocoa grove, pruning branches with a worn machete. Around him, the trees showed signs of black pod disease—a consequence of the unpredictable rainfall patterns that have become the new normal in the region.
“How can the government use the new price to buy some of the cocoa and then turn around a few months later to reduce the price to buy the remaining for the rest of the cocoa season?” he asked, his frustration palpable. “We urge the government to reconsider the decision to safeguard the industry.”
Opoku told me he has been farming cocoa for 40 years. He has weathered price fluctuations before, but never like this. “What we know as cocoa farmers is that the government, through COCOBOD, cannot increase the producer price; it rather maintains the current price and does not reduce it,” he said.
But Opoku is the exception. At a forum in Konongo, Asante Akim Central Municipality, aggrieved farmers declared the price reduction a “threat to their survival.” Robert Oduro Amoah from Konongo Odumase warned that failure to maintain the producer price would discourage young people from entering cocoa farming, especially as the current farming population is ageing. The average age of a Ghanaian cocoa farmer is now 55 years, with very few young people entering the profession.
The Member of Parliament for Oforikrom, Michael Kwasi Aidoo, made a direct connection to the subject of this investigation: “The current happenings within the cocoa sector could force farmers to sell their farms to illegal miners.”
On the other side of the region, a farmer who gave his name only as Akwasi (fearing retribution from both miners and COCOBOD) had already sold. He received GH¢120,000 for three acres. The money paid off his debts, sent his daughter to nursing school, and bought a used motorbike he now uses to transport miners to the site.
“I know the land will never grow cocoa again,” he said quietly, staring at the excavators in the distance. “But if I had kept farming, my daughter would still be at home, and I would still owe the purchasing clerk. What choice did I have?”
The Deeper Crisis: Governance Failure and Institutional Collapse
The crisis beneath the price crisis is one of governance and staggering financial exposure. According to COCOBOD Chief Executive Officer Dr. Randy Abbey, the Board inherited total liabilities estimated at GH¢32.91 billion, including over GH¢10 billion and $481 million due between 2025 and 2026 alone, with no funds set aside for a restructured GH¢2 billion repayment obligation. Dr. Abbey also disclosed that COCOBOD defaulted on forward sales contracts in the 2023/24 season, having signed agreements for 333,760 tonnes of cocoa at $2,600 per tonne but failing to deliver. With cocoa prices subsequently surging to between $10,000 and $12,000 per tonne, the country forfeited nearly $1 billion in potential revenue.
The International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) reported on January 23, 2026, that global cocoa stocks rose 4.2 percent year-on-year to 1.1 million metric tonnes, while the ICCO estimated a 2024/25 global cocoa surplus of 49,000 tonnes, marking the first surplus in four years. StoneX forecasted a global cocoa surplus of 287,000 tonnes in the 2025/26 season and a 267,000 tonne surplus for 2026/27. This global oversupply has driven international cocoa prices down to approximately $3,000 per tonne, their lowest level since May 2023.
The Ghana Federation of Labour, through its Secretary General Abraham Koomson, has called for a full forensic audit of COCOBOD’s operations, with the Board now reportedly saddled with negative equity of about GH¢3.8 billion, meaning its liabilities outweigh its assets. The crisis has become so acute that COCOBOD’s top management and senior staff have accepted salary reductions—20 percent for executives and 10 percent for senior staff—for the remainder of the 2025/26 crop season. “When management takes pay cuts, it reflects the depth of the financial challenge,” one industry analyst noted.
The Licensed Cocoa Buyers Association of Ghana noted in February 2026 that the institution has long been subject to “sweeping changes in personnel at all levels whenever there is a change in government”—a cycle they described as accelerating under recent administrations.
Political appointment has operated from the CEO level down to field officer positions, meaning that every electoral transition resets not just the leadership but large portions of the working professional class beneath it. Qualified professionals who challenge institutional orthodoxy are sidelined; those aligned with political priorities are promoted.
The December 2024 transition made the mechanics unusually visible. Outgoing management attempted to fast-track promotions for approximately 100 staff members—a process that normally takes five to seven months—within two weeks, with the individuals widely described as politically aligned with the outgoing administration.
The GH¢60 billion liability, the 45 percent forecast deviation, the US$1.3 billion in contract rollover losses—these were not anomalies produced by bad luck. They were the predictable outputs of an institution that had spent years eliminating the internal voices that might have prevented them. The International Cocoa Organization has noted that Ghana’s share of global cocoa production has fallen from approximately 20 percent to 15 percent over the past decade, while Côte d’Ivoire’s share has remained stable.
The Chain of Impact: From Adiembra to the Global Cocoa Market
This crisis is not abstract. It is a chain of destruction that begins in the soil of Adiembra and ends in the boardrooms of global chocolate manufacturers. Follow the chain:
The Cocoa Farmer – Kwaku Mensah in Adiembra, Isaac Opoku in Akutuase, and the farmer known only as Akwasi. They face a 29 percent price cut, months of unpaid arrears, and an ageing population with an average age of 55 years. Their choice: sell to galamsey or watch their children go hungry.
The Licensed Buying Company – The LBCs are financially paralyzed because COCOBOD has defaulted on reimbursements for cocoa already purchased and delivered. The Minority in Parliament demands immediate payment of over GH¢10 billion owed to these companies.
COCOBOD – GH¢60 billion in total liabilities. A 45 percent production forecast miss. US$1.3 billion in forward contract losses. Salary cuts for management. Negative equity of GH¢3.8 billion. This is not a Board; this is a patient in critical condition.
The Government of Ghana – The government reduced the producer price by 29 percent, from GH¢3,625 to GH¢2,587 per bag. It inherited a debt burden it did not create but must now manage. The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) and the African Development Bank signed a $600 million receivables-backed term loan facility for the development of the cocoa sector, with AfDB providing $250 million and Credit Suisse arranging the remaining $350 million from commercial lenders. But even this facility struggles against the tide.
International Financial Institutions – The World Bank estimates that cocoa supports approximately 800,000 farm families in Ghana, with nearly five million Ghanaians directly dependent on the crop. The African Development Bank, which has been a key partner, now watches as the sector it helped finance teeters. Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, President of the AfDB, has championed a new African financial architecture to mobilize domestic capital, but structural reforms take time.
Global Cocoa Markets – The International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) reports that Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire produce more than 60 percent of the world’s cocoa. Together, they have attempted to coordinate pricing through the Living Income Differential of $400 per tonne. But global oversupply—a surplus of 287,000 tonnes forecast for 2025/26—has driven prices down. Chocolate manufacturers like Barry Callebaut AG reported a 22 percent decline in sales volume, citing “negative market demand.” Mondelez noted that the cocoa pod count in West Africa is 7 percent above the five-year average. When global demand falls, Ghanaian farmers pay the price.
The Illegal Miner – The galamsey operator steps in where the legal economy fails. With farmers desperate for cash, miners offer GH¢40,000 to GH¢170,000 per acre, or a 70-30 “load” arrangement. The miner takes the gold. The farmer takes the cash. The land takes the poison.
The Destroyed Land – The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources confirms that 5,500 hectares require reclamation at US$48,000 per hectare—a total exceeding US$264 million. An estimated 1.2 million hectares of farmland have been destroyed nationwide. Over 30,000 hectares of cocoa farms were lost to galamsey in 2025 alone. The cumulative economic loss between 2015 and 2025 exceeds US$2.1 billion.
The Community and Future Generations – Children cannot attend school because school fees cannot be paid. Young people see no future in cocoa farming. The average farmer age continues to rise. The land that once supported families for generations is now barren. As Kwaku Mensah said: “My son drives an excavator for the miners. That is not progress. That is surrender.”
The Global Consumer – The chocolate bar purchased in London, New York, or Shanghai may bear no visible mark of this crisis. But the supply chain that delivered it is cracked. The farmer who grew the cocoa may have sold his farm to a miner. The land may never produce again. The next generation may not farm at all. The cost is hidden, but it is real.
This chain is not inevitable. But breaking it requires action at every link—from the farmer in Adiembra to the boardroom in Zurich, from the Ministry of Finance in Accra to the African Development Bank in Abidjan. Every link is a point of intervention. Every link is also a point of failure. Currently, too many are failing.
The Warning from the Farmers’ Association
The President of the Concerned Farmers Association of Ghana, Nana Oboadie Boateng Bonsu, has warned cocoa farmers against giving out their farms to illegal miners, stressing that such actions could lead to prosecution and imprisonment. Speaking in an interview with the media in Accra, Nana Oboadie said the Association will not hesitate to report any farmer found collaborating with galamsey operators. He added that the illegal miners involved will also face punishment under the law.
“If you’re a farmer and you give your cocoa farm to a galamsey operator or a miner, we will report you to the police and then you go to jail,” he stated. “And the miner, too, will be going to jail because the cocoa tree belongs to the state. Cocoa is for the state. It is not for a person.”
His warning underscores the legal reality: cocoa farms are protected assets, and farmers who sell them to miners are not victims—they are accomplices. But for farmers like Kwaku Mensah, who watched his two-acre farm become a muddy pit, the threat of jail carries less weight than the threat of hunger. “Appreciation does not pay school fees,” he said of COCOBOD’s acknowledgment of his pain. The gap between the law and the lived reality is where the miners operate.
The Cost of Reclamation: US$264 Million and Counting
Even if the government successfully stops illegal mining today, the damage is already done. The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources has confirmed that 5,500 hectares of land have been devastated and require reclamation. At US$48,000 per hectare, the total bill exceeds US$264 million.
That figure does not include the lost cocoa revenue, the destroyed water bodies, or the displaced communities. A 2025 study by the University of Ghana estimated that the cumulative economic loss from galamsey-induced cocoa farm destruction between 2015 and 2025 exceeds US$2.1 billion, accounting for both immediate crop loss and future production foregone.
At Manso Adubia in the Amansie South District, where the government showcased its 800-acre reclamation project, the local chief, Nana Doku Appiah Dankwa II, expressed gratitude but also caution. “This is a lifeline for the community and future generations,” he said. But he noted that many more communities have not received such attention.
The Minister of Lands announced that the Galamsey Rehabilitation Initiative has earmarked several other degraded sites for similar interventions, and that the government is planting an additional 20 million tree species this year. But for farmers like Kwaku Mensah in Adiembra, those trees cannot replace the cocoa trees already uprooted—or the trust already broken.
“I have farmed cocoa since 1992,” Mensah told me as the sun set over the pit that was once his livelihood. “My father farmed cocoa. His father farmed cocoa. Now my son drives an excavator for the miners. That is not progress. That is surrender.”
What Must Be Done: Policy Prescriptions from the Ground
Save the Mining Communities-Ghana has issued a set of recommendations to policymakers, COCOBOD, and other stakeholders. These include ensuring timely payment to farmers, maintaining fair producer prices, improving access to affordable credit, and intensifying the fight against illegal mining.
But deeper reforms are needed. COCOBOD must become a pure regulatory authority, with every operational function opened to competitive Ghanaian private sector participation. Farmers and cooperatives must be given the market intelligence and financial infrastructure to exercise real economic agency—direct banking relationships, crop insurance, and farm-level advisory platforms.
Perhaps most critically, Ghana must advance discussions for an African Cocoa Commodities Exchange uniting Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, and Cameroon. These four nations produce approximately 70 percent of the world’s cocoa. Acting together through a jointly governed exchange, they would possess collective price-setting power that none can exercise alone. The Côte d’Ivoire-Ghana Cocoa Initiative, launched in 2018, has already demonstrated the potential of coordinated action, introducing a Living Income Differential of $400 per tonne. A full commodities exchange would represent the next logical step.
The International Labour Organization has also called for stronger child labour monitoring systems in cocoa-growing regions, noting that economic desperation often forces children into hazardous work. When farmers cannot afford school fees, children are pulled from classrooms. When farmers sell their land to miners, children are pushed into mining pits. The cycle of poverty perpetuates itself.
As I left Adiembra, Kwaku Mensah called me back. “When you go to this meeting with government officials and other authorities,” he said, “tell them that Ghana’s cocoa farmers are not asking for charity. We are asking to be paid for what we grow. And we are asking for land that will still be there for our children.”
He paused, looking at the excavator now idling at the edge of his former farm.
“If they cannot give us that, then do not blame us for selling what is left.”
Behind him, the excavator roared back to life. Its metal teeth bit into the red earth, carving a future that would never bear cocoa pods, only gold—and grief.
Alex Ababio is Environment Editor at Ghanaian Watch.
This investigation was supported by the Society of Journalist Africa and African Liberators Economic Institute.
Key Statistics from the Article
Nearly 80 farmers across seven communities in Ghana’s Eastern Region sold cocoa farms or portions of their land to illegal miners between November 2025 and mid-March 2026
Farmers received between GH¢40,000 and GH¢170,000 per acre, or entered “load” arrangements where miners keep 70 percent while farmers receive 30 percent
The cocoa producer price was reduced from GH¢3,625 to GH¢2,587 per 64kg bag—a drop of GH¢1,038, nearly 29 percent
COCOBOD inherited GH¢32.91 billion in debt, including USD commitments of $481 million
The Minority in Parliament demands immediate payment of over GH¢10 billion owed by COCOBOD to Licensed Buying Companies
COCOBOD entered the 2025/26 season carrying GH¢60 billion in total liabilities
Production forecast of 800,000 tonnes missed actual output by 45 percent in 2023/24, producing just 432,145 tonnes
The forecast deviation triggered US$1.3 billion in losses from rollover forward contracts
Approximately 800,000 farm families in Ghana depend on cocoa, with nearly five million Ghanaians relying directly on the crop
5,500 hectares of land currently require reclamation at US$48,000 per hectare, totaling over US$264 million
Only 320 hectares have been restored so far
An estimated 1.2 million hectares of farmland have been destroyed by illegal mining nationwide
Over 30,000 hectares of cocoa farms were lost to galamsey in 2025 alone
The average age of a Ghanaian cocoa farmer is now 55 years
Cumulative economic loss from galamsey-induced cocoa farm destruction between 2015 and 2025 exceeds US$2.1 billion
Ghana’s share of global cocoa production has fallen from approximately 20 percent to 15 percent over the past decade
COCOBOD total liabilities: GH¢60 billion
COCOBOD negative equity: approximately GH¢3.8 billion
Forward contract losses: nearly US$1 billion on 333,760 tonnes sold at $2,600 per tonne
African Development Bank cocoa loan facility: $600 million (AfDB: $250 million, Credit Suisse: $350 million)
Global cocoa surplus forecast 2025/26: 287,000 tonnes (StoneX)
Global cocoa surplus forecast 2026/27: 267,000 tonnes (StoneX)
ICCO reported global cocoa stocks: 1.1 million metric tonnes, up 4.2 percent year-on-year
Barry Callebaut sales volume decline: 22 percent in cocoa division
COCOBOD management salary cuts: 20 percent for executives, 10 percent for senior staff
Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire produce over 60 percent of world’s cocoa