IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/agrhuv/v41y2024i1d10.1007_s10460-023-10470-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Labour relations and working conditions of workers on smallholder cocoa farms in Ghana

Author

Listed:
  • Evans Appiah Kissi

    (University of Kassel)

  • Christian Herzig

    (Justus Liebig University Giessen)

Abstract

The millions of farm workers in the Global South are an important resource for smallholder producers. However, research on their labour organisation is limited. This article focuses on smallholder farm workers in Ghana’s cocoa sector, drawing on insights from qualitative interviews and the concept of bargaining power. We review the labour relations and working conditions of two historical and informally identified labour supply setups (LSSs) in Ghana’s cocoa sector, namely, hired labour and Abusa, a form of landowner–caretaker relations, and identify an imbalance of horizontal power. Further, we analyse the labour relations and working conditions of an emerging and formal LSS in Ghana’s cocoa sector: private labour providers (PLPs). We argue that PLPs are likely to address the imbalance of horizontal power between farm workers and smallholders and bring about significant improvements in the working conditions of farm workers. We also assess the sustainability potential and limitations of PLPs and argue that tensions exist. We contribute to the growing horizontal power perspective by providing avenues for research and policy related to promoting sustained labour rights for farm workers in smallholder agriculture in the Global South.

Suggested Citation

  • Evans Appiah Kissi & Christian Herzig, 2024. "Labour relations and working conditions of workers on smallholder cocoa farms in Ghana," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 41(1), pages 109-120, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:41:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1007_s10460-023-10470-2
    DOI: 10.1007/s10460-023-10470-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10460-023-10470-2
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10460-023-10470-2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mohan, Sarah, 2016. "Institutional Change in Value Chains: Evidence from Tea in Nepal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 52-65.
    2. Laura Raynolds, 2014. "Fairtrade, certification, and labor: global and local tensions in improving conditions for agricultural workers," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 31(3), pages 499-511, September.
    3. Evans Appiah Kissi & Christian Herzig, 2020. "Methodologies and Perspectives in Research on Labour Relations in Global Agricultural Production Networks: A Review," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(9), pages 1615-1637, July.
    4. Nozilakhon Mukhamedova & Richard Pomfret, 2019. "Why Does Sharecropping Survive? Agrarian Institutions and Contract Choice in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 61(4), pages 576-597, December.
    5. Diego Thompson, 2021. "Building and transforming collective agency and collective identity to address Latinx farmworkers’ needs and challenges in rural Vermont," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 38(1), pages 129-143, February.
    6. Anette Ruml & Matin Qaim, 2021. "Smallholder Farmers’ Dissatisfaction with Contract Schemes in Spite of Economic Benefits: Issues of Mistrust and Lack of Transparency," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(7), pages 1106-1119, July.
    7. Sandra Contzen & Jérémie Forney, 2017. "Family farming and gendered division of labour on the move: a typology of farming-family configurations," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 34(1), pages 27-40, March.
    8. Céline Louche & Lotte Staelens & Marijke D’Haese, 2020. "When Workplace Unionism in Global Value Chains Does Not Function Well: Exploring the Impediments," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 162(2), pages 379-398, March.
    9. Matteo Rizzo, 2013. "Informalisation and the end of trade unionism as we knew it? Dissenting remarks from a Tanzanian case study," Review of African Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(136), pages 290-308, June.
    10. Matthew Alford & Stephanie Barrientos & Margareet Visser, 2017. "Multi-scalar Labour Agency in Global Production Networks: Contestation and Crisis in the South African Fruit Sector," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 48(4), pages 721-745, July.
    11. Monica Schuster & Miet Maertens, 2017. "Worker Empowerment Through Private Standards. Evidence from the Peruvian Horticultural Export Sector," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(4), pages 618-637, April.
    12. Stephanie Barrientos, 2014. "Gendered Global Production Networks: Analysis of Cocoa-Chocolate Sourcing," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(5), pages 791-803, May.
    13. Fédes Rijn & Ricardo Fort & Ruerd Ruben & Tinka Koster & Gonne Beekman, 2020. "Does certification improve hired labour conditions and wageworker conditions at banana plantations?," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 37(2), pages 353-370, June.
    14. Genevieve LeBaron & Ellie Gore, 2020. "Gender and Forced Labour: Understanding the Links in Global Cocoa Supply Chains," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(6), pages 1095-1117, June.
    15. Nana Akua Anyidoho & Jennifer Leavy & Kwadwo Asenso‐Okyere, 2012. "Perceptions and Aspirations: A Case Study of Young People in Ghana's Cocoa Sector," IDS Bulletin, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 43(6), pages 20-32, November.
    16. Gideon Danso-Abbeam & Lloyd J. S. Baiyegunhi, 2017. "Adoption of agrochemical management practices among smallholder cocoa farmers in Ghana," African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation and Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(6), pages 717-728, November.
    17. Barrientos,Stephanie, 2019. "Gender and Work in Global Value Chains," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108492317, Enero.
    18. Annelien Gansemans & Marijke D’Haese, 2020. "Staying under the radar: constraints on labour agency of pineapple plantation workers in Costa Rica?," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 37(2), pages 397-414, June.
    19. Stephanie BARRIENTOS & Lara BIANCHI & Cindy BERMAN, 2019. "Gender and governance of global value chains: Promoting the rights of women workers," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 158(4), pages 729-752, December.
    20. Stephanie BARRIENTOS & Gary GEREFFI & Arianna ROSSI, 2011. "Economic and social upgrading in global production networks: A new paradigm for a changing world," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 150(3-4), pages 319-340, December.
    21. Huw Thomas, 2021. "A ‘Decent Cuppa’: Worker Power and Consumer Power in the Sri Lankan Tea Sector," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 59(1), pages 114-138, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Evans Appiah Kissi & Christian Herzig, 2024. "The implications of governance factors for economic and social upgrading in Ghana’s cocoa value chain," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 12(1), pages 1-23, December.
    2. Annelien Gansemans & Marijke D’Haese, 2020. "Staying under the radar: constraints on labour agency of pineapple plantation workers in Costa Rica?," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 37(2), pages 397-414, June.
    3. Bataka, Hodabalo, 2024. "Global value chains participation and gender inequalities in Sub-Saharan Africa: Importance of women education," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    4. Marslev, Kristoffer & Staritz, Cornelia & Raj‐Reichert, Gale, 2022. "Rethinking Social Upgrading in Global Value Chains: Worker Power, State‒Labour Relations and Intersectionality," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 53(4), pages 827-859.
    5. Laura T. Raynolds, 2021. "Gender equity, labor rights, and women’s empowerment: lessons from Fairtrade certification in Ecuador flower plantations," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 38(3), pages 657-675, September.
    6. Johanna Gammelgaard & Stine Haakonsson & Sine Nørholm Just, 2021. "Linking Malawi’s agricultural sector to global value chains: The case for community governance," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 4(4), pages 523-540, December.
    7. Jonathan Morris & Jean Jenkins & Jimmy Donaghey, 2021. "Uneven Development, Uneven Response: The Relentless Search for Meaningful Regulation of GVCs," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 59(1), pages 3-24, March.
    8. Rexford Akrong & Angela Dziedzom Akorsu & Praveen Jha & Joseph Boateng Agyenim, 2025. "Globalgap certification and working conditions of workers on smallholder mango farms in Ghana," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 42(1), pages 405-419, March.
    9. Elsje Fourie & Bilisuma Dito & Konjit Gudeta & Karen Schelleman-Offermans & Valentina Mazzucato & Kai Jonas, 2024. "The Bitter and the Sweet: Managerial Perceptions of the Well-Being of Ethiopian Female Apparel and Horticultural Workers," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 24(2), pages 185-201, April.
    10. Kristoffer Marslev & Cornelia Staritz & Gale Raj‐Reichert, 2022. "Rethinking Social Upgrading in Global Value Chains: Worker Power, State‒Labour Relations and Intersectionality," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 53(4), pages 827-859, July.
    11. Matthew Alford & Margareet Visser & Stephanie Barrientos, 2021. "Southern actors and the governance of labour standards in global production networks: The case of South African fruit and wine," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(8), pages 1915-1934, November.
    12. Giovanni Pasquali & Shane Godfrey, 2022. "Governance of Eswatini Apparel Regional Value Chains and the Implications of Covid-19," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 34(1), pages 473-502, February.
    13. Mark ANNER, 2021. "Three labour governance mechanisms for addressing decent work deficits in global value chains," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 160(4), pages 611-629, December.
    14. Gary GEREFFI & Anne Caroline POSTHUMA & Arianna ROSSI, 2021. "Introduction: Disruptions in global value chains – Continuity or change for labour governance?," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 160(4), pages 501-517, December.
    15. Aarti Krishnan & Monica Nganga & Tim Foster, 2023. "Gendered implications of the waves of COVID-19 and economic upgrading trajectories in digital value chains: Insights from Kenyan agricultural platforms," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2023-63, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    16. Krauss, Judith E. & Artur, Luis & Brockington, Dan & Castro, Eduardo & Fernando, Jone & Fisher, Janet & Kingman, Andrew & Moises, Hosia Mavoto & Mlambo, Ana & Nuvunga, Milagre & Pritchard, Rose & Ribe, 2022. "‘To prevent this disease, we have to stay at home, but if we stay at home, we die of hunger’ – Livelihoods, vulnerability and coping with Covid-19 in rural Mozambique," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    17. Mark ANNER, 2022. "Power relations in global supply chains and the unequal distribution of costs during crises: Abandoning garment suppliers and workers during the COVID‐19 pandemic," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 161(1), pages 59-82, March.
    18. Manuel Santos Silva & Stephan Klasen, 2021. "Gender inequality as a barrier to economic growth: a review of the theoretical literature," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 581-614, September.
    19. Giuliana Vinci & Marco Ruggeri & Laura Gobbi & Marco Savastano, 2024. "Social Life Cycle Assessment of Cocoa Production: Evidence from Ivory Coast and Ghana," Resources, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-19, October.
    20. Kossi Edem Baita & Kwami Ossadzifo Wonyra, 2023. "Effet global du genre dans le développement des chaînes de valeur mondiales dans le contexte africain," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 35(4), pages 365-375, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:41:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1007_s10460-023-10470-2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.