Accessible Soils and Sustainable Environments (ASASE)

The problem

In the Ghanaian cocoa sector, it is well known that farmers' land and tree tenure affect their ability to adapt to and invest in climate-smart farming practices, such as planting shade trees or applying good agricultural practices. Yet, no initiative has tried tackling this issue at scale.

As a first of its kind in the West-African cocoa sector, the ASASE project combines a focus on securing farmers' land and tree rights with innovative versions of more common interventions. Such training and input provisions enable farmers to transition to agroforestry practices at the farm level.

Our solution - ASASE

We integrate land and tree tenure documentation into a holistic landscape approach with different interventions at the cocoa farm and off-farm levels.

The ASASE project moves away from the traditional focus on the direct (farm-level) supply chain. Instead, it intervenes on three levels with a landscape approach: collaborating with cocoa farmers, their rural communities, and in local forest remnants beyond the cocoa farms - through, e.g. forest and land restoration as well as community natural resource management capacity building.

Activities include land titling and shade tree registration for 3,000 farmers, the distribution and planting of more than 600,000 multipurpose tree seedlings for on- and off-farm planting, and the reforestation of 100 hectares of degraded lands such as informal “galamsey” gold mining sites. ASASE aims for a bottom-up approach with tangible, direct benefits for farmers and the environment.

The partnership

ASASE is a four-year public-private partnership project implemented by ETG-Beyond Beans, Meridia, Tropenbos Ghana and the Ghanaian Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources and funded by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency.

FarmSeal - Land titling

We are developing and implementing land tenure documentation to improve the long-term security of farmers’ rights to their land, without the fear of losing their investment profits. For ETG-Beyond Beans, that means their farmers are enabled to apply longer-term farming practice changes.

Through partnerships with government and customary authorities, which govern roughly 80% of Ghana’s land, and specialised GPS mapping software, we provide farmers with recognised land tenure documentation at low prices.

TreeSeal - Shade tree registration

By mapping shade trees on cocoa farms, we ensure farmers’ legal rights to the trees they plant and grow. ETG-Beyond Beans can be more assured that investments in tree planting pay off.

Despite the importance of shade trees on cocoa farms, farmers often fear planting or maintaining them due to their lack of legal ownership over them, putting them at risk of exploitation by timber contractors. These corporations are known to cut down shade trees without farmers’ consent, destroying cocoa plantations in the process.

With GPS mapping software, we are mapping the locations of all shade trees on participating farmers’ land. They get registered, and farmers receive legal ownership documents for the trees - all done with the support of and under the guidance of the Forest Commission.

Experience from a cocoa farmer

Esi Nkrumah is a 66-year-old cocoa farmer from Pewodi, Nsokoté, who participated in the ASASE project. Cocoa is her most important crop and primary income source; she also grows plantain, cassava, and palm trees as an additional income source. 

“The ASASE trainings are helping me increase my yields by teaching me proper pruning techniques and recommending many different farming practices specific to my needs,” she explains.

TreeSeal is an intervention she is particularly looking forward to. “Protecting my trees is vital to me, as I have had cases where my trees got removed from my farm without my consent. They destroyed my cocoa trees and left me with nothing. I think TreeSeal will help many farmers like me avoid these situations.”

First results

• Partnerships are developed in four new traditional areas to deliver land tenure documents.

• Partnerships developed with four Forestry Commission Districts to deliver tree registration.

• Mapping of 2,250 farmers (1 farm/farmer) for land tenure documentation and tree registration.

• Successfully verifying >2,000 farm and tree data by Forestry Commission districts for tree registration documents.

Other highlights

• We have entered new areas in two Ghanaian regions, the Western and Ashanti regions, and successfully partnered with customary authorities and governmental institutions to deliver land tenure documents and tree registrations.

• We have collaborated deeply with Licensed Buying Companies, who contribute through farmer mobilisation, sign-up and payment collection.

• We have tested different operational, sales, and financial models to develop a scalable documentation and registration model.