Vol.:(0123456789) SN Bus Econ (2021) 1:149 https://doi.org/10.1007/s43546-021-00152-8 REVIEW Efects of cocoa swollen shoot virus disease (CSSVD) on the welfare of cocoa farmers in Ghana: evidence from Chorichori community of the Sefwi Akontombra district Solomon Yaw Agyeman‑Boaten 1  · Abel Fumey 1 Received: 23 March 2021 / Accepted: 16 September 2021 © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 Abstract Cocoa farmers face many drawbacks to their socioeconomic progress. A vivid example is the cocoa swollen shoot virus disease (CSSVD) which has caused mass destruction to many cocoa-growing areas like the Western North Region, where a larger portion of over 60% of Ghana’s cocoa was produced. This study set out to fnd the efect of the CSSVD on the living standards of cocoa farmers in Ghana. A structured questionnaire was administered to elicit information from all 386 cocoa farming households of the study community in the study area, the epicenter of the disease. The study employed a Multidimensional Poverty Index as a meas- ure of the farmers’ welfare and estimated the simultaneous equation tobit model (Newey’s two-step estimation) to fnd the socioeconomic implication of the disease on the cocoa farmers. The outcome of the study indicates that the CSSV disease as the main variable signifcantly afects the living standards of the cocoa farming households multidimensionally. This implies that the disease’s incidence reduces crop yield leading to low resources, thereby adversely afecting households’ wel- fare. Occupational diversity, educational level of the household head, knowledge of the disease, cocoa land size, households that had migrated to the study area, those that employ an external labour force, the log of household’s expenditure, number of household members, age of households’ head, access to farm water and participation of-farm activities were statistically signifcant on the depth of multidimensional poverty of the households. As policy measures, formal education and education on the disease’s awareness should be intensifed through frequent engagement with agriculture extension ofcers who will teach the farmers how to handle the disease. As a measure to alleviate multidimensional poverty, the use of external labour force should be encouraged for large-scale production. Finally, cocoa farmer households are to diversify to mitigate the impact of crop disease. Keywords Cocoa swollen shoot virus disease (CSSVD) · Multidimensional poverty · Standard of living · Welfare Extended author information available on the last page of the article