Journeying into the Abrokonso community in Ghana’s Western Region tells you everything about the sheer isolation of the “last mile” before you arrive. Leaving Asankragua, the capital and the major town, requires a gruelling three-hour motorbike ride along a punishing bush track. Eventually, even the track vanishes, narrowing into a dense forest path negotiable only on foot. Here, there is no electricity, no clean potable water, no school and no hospital. There are only the vast, untamed forests, scattered hamlets and the resilient people who have carved out lives within them.
Solomon Azumah, 38, is one of those people. He has lived in Abrokonso for a decade, ever since he left his native home in the Upper East Region in search of a livelihood and a piece of land he could call his own. Cocoa was what greeted him when he arrived, and it quickly became his lifeline.
Solomon is married with five children (two boys and three girls), and survival in Abrokonso demands a relentless daily rhythm from all of them. The nearest water stream is an hour’s walk from their house, and to reach the children’s school in Supanso, a neighbouring community, the children must walk five hours total. The children usually join their mother at the stream to fetch water upon their return from school, while Solomon stays behind on the farm until dusk. There is no shortcut in this kind of life. There is only the walking, the farming and the anxious waiting for the next harvest.
The cocoa farm has always been at the centre of that struggle for Solomon. His days are usually spent tending the trees, clearing the farm, managing weeds and undergrowth and doing what he can to keep the cocoa productive. For years, that hard work provided enough of a return to keep his family going. His farm once produced as many as 50 bags of cocoa in a season, giving him enough income to pay for farm inputs, support his children’s education and meet responsibilities to his wider family.
Those days, I had money because the cocoa harvests were more. I did not have much money, but at least I got something enough to cover farm inputs, pay school fees, and send money back north. As my father’s firstborn, responsibility for the extended family rests heavily on my shoulders.
Solomon Azumah
But over the last few years, that security shattered. Where Solomon once counted on 50 bags (64kg each) of cocoa a season, his yields began slipping, first to 40, then, four years ago, below 30.
The reasons were not unique to him. Across Ghana’s cocoa belt, farmers have experienced erratic rainfall and changing weather patterns, widespread pests and diseases, ageing farms and the spread of illegal small-scale gold mining, known locally as galamsey, taking over cocoa farmlands.
For Solomon, the fall in yields meant fewer bags to sell, less money for inputs and a growing gap between what the farm gave and what his family needed. “Already, life is difficult here,” he says, “so if the only source of income is dying, then man has to sit up and do something extra.”
That “something extra” was illegal mining (galamsey).
I went into galamsey not out of desire, but out of necessity, chasing money that cocoa could no longer guarantee.
Solomon Azumah
In 2025, that desperate calculation began to change. Solomon encountered the Wassa Amenfi Cocoa Landscape Initiative, implemented by Solidaridad, Rikolto and Preferred by Nature. The initiative supports climate-smart cocoa production and tree planting across cocoa-growing communities. He learnt to plant forest trees alongside his cocoa and received training in good agronomic practices, including pruning, mulching, disease and pest management, agroforestry and soil fertility management.
“I received over 100 tree seedlings, among them mahogany, ‘framo’ and ‘mansonia’. I learnt that these are native trees from Ghana’s forests and known to provide sustainable dense shade for cocoa”, says Solomon.
The project combines shade tree planting with a Payment for Ecosystem Services, in which farmers who maintain tree cover on their land qualify for financial incentives tied to the environmental services those trees provide, including carbon storage, soil protection and water conservation.
Solomon did not wait to be convinced. “My land, which is rocky and unforgiving in places, needed careful preparation before the seedlings could take root,” he shares. “With little spare cash, I still found a way to invest in these new trees; I bought several bags of chicken droppings to serve as manure at around 40 Ghana cedis a bag”.
He did the land preparation and planting himself, based on the training he received.
“Within one year of planting and using the manure, the trees have shot up much taller than I imagined possible,” Solomon shares, beaming. “There’s shade all over the farm. Previously, by mid-day, you couldn’t even go to the farm because of the sun, but now the place is so cool. But what surprises me most is that the cocoa trees have begun fruiting much earlier than usual “.
This season, he expects his harvest to rebound to 40 bags, a marked improvement on recent years’ low points. He is now confidently eyeing a return to 50 bags and beyond in the coming seasons.
His wife, Philomina Azumah, adds, “I actually enjoy going to the farm now. The shade doesn’t make the sun scorch me like it used to. We are expecting increased yields, but honestly, for now, even the shade we enjoy alone is enough.”
Under the new canopy he has helped grow, Solomon is now putting his faith in the land that once fed him again.
Finally, Solomon shares that “life has not been easy for us at all in this village. But now, instead of engaging in galamsey, I spend more time on my farm, knowing with certainty that I will be making more money from here, so I need to do it well. When I get more money, I want to raise a small building in a community nearer to town, so that my children can have access to a good school and a good life”.
ABOUT WASSA AMENFI COCOA LANDSCAPE INITIATIVE
The Wassa Amenfi Cocoa Landscape Initiative, implemented by Solidaridad, Rikolto and Preferred by Nature from 2023 to 2027, aims to strengthen the resilience and productivity of cocoa farms through climate-smart agroforestry, diversification and improved agricultural practices, while enhancing farmers’ access to ecosystem services. The initiative targets 5,000 cocoa farmers in the Wassa Amenfi cocoa landscape and has so far reached more than 5,200 farmers. More than 248,000 tree and fruit seedlings have also been distributed and planted under the initiative.