Side selling definition
Side selling. The model contains some yield discounts, but side selling by farmers remains an ongoing risk for all crops other than turmeric. ECOM can partially mitigate this risk for vegetable crops by careful screening of farmers and close monitoring of fields, but narrow eligibility limits participation and increased monitoring increases cost. Crop insurance can theoretically mitigate many of the production risks identified above. However, crop insurance in practice is not readily available in Ghana and the cost effectiveness of the premiums is unknown. There is also a risk that demonstrating the higher value of cash crops may lead to increase pressure to clear forests for cash crops rather than cocoa farms. This pressure already exists from cocoa and gold mining, and the same efforts to protect forest reserves from these pressures would also need to address potential pressure from cash crops. The model clearly demonstrates that keeping some land set aside for annual cash crops is better for farmers long-term income across all scenarios, and further increases in higher value cash crops will continue to increase farmer income. This is clearly beneficial for ▇▇▇▇▇▇’▇ livelihoods, and income diversification will help improve overall economic resilience. However, without ongoing or additional support it may be hard for some farmers to pursue long-term diversification away from cocoa for several reasons: • Capital needs: Annual cash crops are more capital intensive and require annual investments to purchase seeds and inputs. Once a cocoa farm is established a farmer only needs to purchase inputs, and a farm may still produce some pods with minimal or no inputs. For example, capital needs to purchase all inputs and materials to farm one acre of chili is over GH¢1,300 per year, whereas cocoa is approximately GH¢350 per year after it is established. • Access to markets: The cocoa value chain is well established in rural Ghana. There are some local markets for locally consumed food crops, but these could not support a wide-scale shift in rural agricultural production. Value chains that bring rural crops to larger markets in Kumasi, Accra, or international markets need access to consistent produce at scale. Farmers need support from a third-party aggregator to access these markets. • Labor: A fully established cocoa farm requires less labor per acre than annual cash crops. It is unclear if cocoa farmers can provide or pay for the additional labor required to farm larger areas ...