Journal of Economics and Sustainable Development www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1700 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2855 (Online) Vol.8, No.14, 2017 277 A Quantitative Assessment of the National Cocoa Disease and Pest Control (CODAPEC) Program in Ghana. Obed Owusu 1* Elikem Tsamenyi 2 1. Department of Economics, Dalhousie University, 6214 University Ave., Halifax, NS, Canada. 2. Department of Political Science, Dalhousie University, 6214 University Ave, Halifax, NS, Canada. * E-mail of the corresponding author: 1 or candrey2008@yahoo.com Abstract Agriculture in general and cocoa production in particular, has been plugged with many challenges including the high incidence of diseases and pests’ infestation. In 2001, the government of Ghana implemented the National Cocoa Disease and Pest Control (CODAPEC) program which aimed at providing free spraying of cocoa plants to cocoa growing farmers to fight against the rising incidence of diseases and pests’ outbreak and more importantly, curb the declining cocoa production and quality of yield. This paper, therefore, examines the impact of the CODAPEC program on yield, production and revenue at the aggregate level and diverts from the micro approach widely used in the literature. Overall, the analysis shows substantial growth in production and revenue but particularly strong for the periods following the implementation of the program. The analysis also shows significant differences in mean production and revenue before and after the implementation of the policy. However, much of the growth in production represents a recovery from long years of production slump, hence, had only moderate effect on revenue growth. Nevertheless, to sustain and accelerate economic growth, we strongly recommend that greater investment should be geared towards the agriculture as sector remains key to any development agenda of the government. Keywords: Cocoa; Production; Yield; Revenue; Decomposition; Ghana. 1. Introduction Despite the dominance of the mining sector and informal services, agriculture remains the backbone of the Ghanaian economy. The sector employs about 40% of the country’s labour force and contributes over 25% to the country’s GDP (Research & Information Directorate 2010; Owusu, 2016). However, agriculture in Ghana is dominated by cocoa production. Cocoa continuous to be the country’s major agricultural export, key source of foreign exchange and an important source of rural household income in Ghana. In fact, the importance of cocoa to the Ghanaian economy has been well documented. For example, cocoa ranks second to gold in foreign exchange earnings and contributes over 50% to the country’s total revenue from agricultural export (Dormon et al., 2004; Lundstedt & Pärssinen 2009; Anang et al., 2013). In terms of employment, it has been estimated that about 865,000 farmers are directly engaged in cocoa production in Ghana while more than 2 million people derive their livelihood from cocoa production (Gakpo, 2012; Anang et al., 2013). Per Ntiamoah and Afrane (2008), the cocoa sub-sector employs about 60% of the country’s agriculture labour force (Note 1). Therefore, tackling any threats to the cocoa sub-sector remains an important agenda for any government in Ghana. However, the agriculture sector in general and cocoa production as a sub-sector is faced with major challenges, among which include access to credit, diseases and pests’ infestation, adverse climate and poor soil quality. Together, these factors adversely affected the country’s position as the world’s leading producer of cocoa beans (Nyanteng, 1980; Obeng & Opoku, 2008; Grossman-Green & Bayer, 2009, Oduro & Omane-Adjepong, 2012) (Note 2). To tackle some of these challenges, there has been several policy reforms/interventions in the agricultural sector and the cocoa sub-sector in particular. One such policy intervention (which forms the focus of this paper) is the National Cocoa Disease and Pest Control (CODAPEC) (Note 3), popularly known as the Mass Cocoa Spraying Exercise, introduced in 2001 under the auspices of then president, John Agyekum Kuffour and in with the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) overseeing its implementation. The key objective of this policy intervention was to address the rising and persistent incidence of diseases and pests to arrest declining cocoa production and quality of yield. The program provides mass spraying of cocoa trees to farmers at no cost (Dormon et al., 2004; Abankwah et al., 2010; Duker and Sakpaku, 2011; Oduro and Omane-Agyepong, 2012; Anang et al. 2013). It must be indicated that several similar initiatives had been undertaken by various governments, especially, in the 1950s, 60s and 80s but were mostly discontinued by successive governments,