Senior crop scientist Dr Frank Ackah says heat stress is wiping out cocoa flowers and young pods, threatening deeper output losses in the 2026/27 season.

Published 10 Nov 2026, 15:53 GMT

2 min read

Two hands spreading fermented cocoa beans out to dry on a woven mat — Cocoa beans laid out to dry. Ghana's cocoa output fell by an estimated 20 per cent in 2023/24.

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A senior crop scientist at the University of Cape Coast (UCC) has warned that rising heat across Ghana's cocoa belt is causing widespread flower abortion and premature pod drop on farms.

Dr Frank Kwekucher Ackah, a senior lecturer at UCC's Department of Crop Science, told The High Street Journal that heat stress is wiping out cocoa flowers.

"Once there is heat, all the flowers will abort, and so you are not going to get the fruits," Dr Ackah said, adding that young pods already formed on trees are also dropping before maturity.

The warning follows a very strong El Niño advisory from the Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMet), which has forecast a hotter, drier Harmattan from late November through April 2027 across major growing areas including the Western North and Ahafo regions.

In a statement, the Cocoa Marketing Company (CMC) said the outlook for the 2026/27 crop would depend on how long dry spells last and how severe they become.

CMC Managing Director Wisdom Kofi Dogbey previously told Reuters that failing pollination, ageing trees and disease could push 2026/27 output down by 18 to 38 per cent to between 470,000 and 620,000 metric tonnes, compared with 760,000 tonnes a year earlier.

"I have also seen the government distributing fertiliser at this period, and I see it to be too late," he said of the free agro-input rollout, explaining that granular fertiliser cannot dissolve without rain.

He urged the government to subsidise portable sprinkler and drip irrigation systems for cocoa farmers near water bodies, advised growers to heap dry leaves around trees as mulch, and called on COCOBOD to expand drought-management training.

Dr Ackah added that top producer Côte d'Ivoire faces the same heat stress and urged policymakers to prepare economic alternatives rather than relying heavily on raw cocoa.

Araba IncoomAraba Incoom writes on multiple topics with a vast knowledge across different sector. You can almost call me an AI, after all, my initials are Araba Incoom.

Heat causing &#39;serious flower abortion&#39; across Ghana&#39;s cocoa belt – UCC crop scientist

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