By Adnan Adams Mohammed
The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Dr. Randy Abbey, has reaffirmed the government’s commitment to protecting the nation’s cocoa sector, revealing that the passed Cocoa Bill 2026 officially classifies cocoa trees as protected crops to curb farm destruction and legal loopholes.
Speaking during a media engagement on the landmark legislation, Dr. Abbey highlighted the aggressive encroachment on cocoa lands across the country and underscored the urgent need for a modernized legal framework.
“The new law makes cocoa trees a protected crop to safeguard national and farmers’ interest,” Dr. Abbey stated, pointing to widespread land conversion by land sellers and private interests as a major threat to national output.
“They are destroying cocoa,” Dr. Abbey lamented. “Land sellers are giving these cocoa farms to timber companies, to mining companies, and now even to real estate developers across key cocoa-growing areas. They are clearing all the cocoa farms.”
The COCOBOD chief expressed grave concern over the cumulative effect of land clearing and plant diseases, noting that the country’s cocoa footprint is shrinking at an alarming rate.
“Already in Ghana, 40% of cocoa farms have been ravaged by swollen shoot disease 40%. This means they are not productive,” Dr. Abbey explained. He noted that without adequate legal protections, ongoing farm clearing alongside disease outbreaks risks shrinking national production even further.
Addressing criticisms regarding regulatory oversight, Dr. Abbey defended the necessity of tailored Ghanaian solutions, contrasting local legal approaches with stricter enforcement mechanisms used in neighboring countries.
“These laws exist because other countries do not have the same problems we have. If you look at how they deal with cocoa smuggling, we cannot easily do the same in Ghana because of concerns about human rights,” he noted. “In Côte d’Ivoire, they seize the smuggled cocoa and burn the truck carrying it. But Ghana has its own challenges, so we must find solutions that suit our own circumstances.”
The proposed legislation also seeks to fix long-standing gaps in penalizing perpetrators who destroy farms. According to Dr. Abbey, offenders currently exploit outdated laws enacted decades ago.
“The issue raised about the courts relates to the 1979 decree. The reason some people go ahead to destroy cocoa farms is because they have studied the decree and know the punishment stated in it,” Dr. Abbey revealed. “When you examine the 1979 decree, you realize that it is not adequate. We have a law from 1979 that is supposed to protect cocoa, but what sanctions does it actually provide? The weakness of the law is one of the reasons why people continue to destroy cocoa farms.”
Dr. Abbey assured smallholder farmers that the new legal framework would protect and support all farm holdings regardless of size, noting that average farm sizes in Ghana sit at roughly three hectares compared to larger plantations elsewhere.
“Regardless of whether a cocoa farm is 0.5 hectares or several thousand hectares, it is still recognized as a farm and is entitled to support,” he said, adding that details regarding authorization and enforcement will be clearly outlined in regulations to be submitted to Parliament soon.
