teacher's notes - geography
Below are screen-by-screen background notes about using the module for whole class teaching, as well as answers for worksheets where appropriate.
Section 1: About Ghana
About Ghana
You could ask individual students for answers to the questions on this first screen, and for other statements about Ghana, based on the map. Point out that its shape is the result of the division of West Africa among Britain and other European nations, during colonisation. Different tribal regions were welded together into the entity that is now Ghana.
Ghana in close-up
With the map on display, you could ask students to make one observation each about Ghana based on what is on the map, without repetition or hesitation. For example about where the highest land is, or the location of the railways. (The railways were originally built to carry ore, timber, cocoa and other materials to the coast, from the resource-rich south, for shipping overseas. The network is now being extended.)
Clicking on the star takes you to a Google Maps view of Ghana. You can use the buttons on the top right of the screen to toggle between satellite and terrain views.
Once you have downloaded, Google Earth onto your computer, you can access more detailed information than on Google Maps. You can, for example, switch on Millennium Development Programme markers.
The Millennium Development Goals promote poverty reduction, education, maternal health, gender equality, and aim to combat child mortality, AIDS and other diseases. To find out more, visit the Millennium Development Goals website.
Ghana in pictures
The photos in this set offer opportunities for a range of work. For example, encourage students to come up with observations about what is going on in a photo, or questions (who, what, where, why, when …), that other students can try to answer. The development compass rose can be used with many of the photos. Students could practice drawing annotated sketches based on the photos.
The standard of living
This screen presents some development indicators, expressed informally. (Some are presented more formally in Worksheet 1A.) Encourage and discuss comparisons with the UK here. For example, do we all have access to safe drinking water? How much money do you think a person would need to survive, for a week or month, in the UK? (Including for food, clothing, electricity, transport, rent and so on.) How much is that per day? You could point out that people in the UK are about 14 times wealthier, on average, than people in Ghana. (This is based on data for GDP per capita.)
Ghana’s big challenge
Ghana is a stable, hardworking country, striving to make progress.
How could its natural resources help it? How could more industry help?
Over to you
This final screen of the section gives access to the worksheets and “Taking it further”.
Students will need atlases or internet access for this worksheet. A map showing Ghana’s cocoa-growing region is provided on the “Ghana’s cocoa region” page in Section 2. Students could check each other’s completed maps for accuracy, and score them out of 10.
Below is the completed table for questions 2 and 3:
| Ghana | UK | |
|---|---|---|
| Area (sq km) | 239 460 sq km | 244 820 sq km |
| Population (millions) | 23 million | 61 million |
| GDP per capita ($ US) | $2500 | $33 200 |
| Life expectancy (years) | 59 | 79 |
| Under-5 mortality rate (number of children per year) | 112 | 6 |
| Adult literacy rate (%) | 58% | 99% |
| % of people with electricity | 49% | 100% |
| % of population living in urban areas | 48% | 90% |
| % of people working in farming | 56% | 2% |
Taking it further1: Ghana and development
This looks at a range of development indicators, the Millennium Development Goals, and where the money needed to develop Ghana might come from. Extension ideas are provided.
Section 2: Cocoa farming
Cocoa farming
Fernando Po is now called Bioko, and is part of Equatorial Guinea. It was controlled by Spain for many years. You could ask students to find it in an atlas. Ask for suggestions about why it was necessary to smuggle the cocoa beans. The question will be answered in “Taking it further” for this section.
Ghana’s cocoa region
Point out that cocoa originated in the tropical rainforests of Central and South America, in the rainforest under-canopy. So what can students deduce about the conditions it needs, from their knowledge of rainforests? What can they deduce about the climate in Ghana’s cocoa-growing region?
In Ghana, most cocoa is grown where the rainforest has been thinned out, in the shade of taller rainforest trees. (Ghana once had extensive rainforest, but has lost much of it to the timber industry.)
Ghana is the second biggest cocoa producer:
The cocoa producers
| Country | Share of the total produced, one year |
|---|---|
| Belize | Less than 1% |
| Brazil | 4% |
| Cameroon | 5% |
| Cote d’Ivoire | 36% |
| Dominican Republic | Less than 1% |
| Ecuador | 3% |
| Ghana | 18% |
| India | Less than 1% |
| Indonesia | 16% |
| Malaysia | 1% |
| Nigeria | 6% |
| Others | Approx. 8% |
The farmers’ work
Invite students to look closely at the photos and see how much they can observe, and deduce. For example:
Do women do farm work? (Yes. A small number inherit or purchase land to cultivate cocoa, but most work on farms that their husbands own or act as caretakers for.)
Does cocoa farming need a lot of machinery? (No, just some standard tools such as a long-handled knife for cutting pods down from trees. Spraying machines which spray the crops with insecticide and fungicide can help to produce better crops, but currently not many people have access to these.)
What could go wrong? (Crops can be damaged if farmers do not weed around their farms, spray their cocoa trees against the capsid pest (an insect) and black pod disease (a fungus), or if they leave mistletoe growing on their trees. They can also run into problems if they or their spouse falls ill and can’t work for a while. If beans aren’t dried properly, they can go mouldy.)
What ocean do the cocoa beans travel on, to reach the UK? (The Atlantic.)
Would harvesting cocoa be enjoyable?
Now test yourself!
This is a straight forward exercise to reinforce the key points from the previous page. “The farmers’ work”.
From beans to chocolate
You could ask questions like these: What else might go into chocolate, besides cocoa? Where could you find out? What other uses of cocoa can you think of, apart from chocolate? Has it been interesting, learning how cocoa is produced? And what has it got to do with geography?
Examples of other uses of cocoa include cocoa powder for cooking and drinking, drinking chocolate and cocoa butter, which is pressed out of the ground-up cocoa beans and used in body lotions and other cosmetics, and in soap. The Cadbury website might offer some inspiration.
Over to you
This final screen of the section gives access to the worksheets and “Taking it further”.
Below is the completed crossword:
Answers: Down
1 Buying
2 Exports
3 Producers
5 Dried
6 Banana
7 Tema
11 Ship
13 Chocolate
15 Climate
17 Shade
Answers: Accross
4 Pod
8 Wales
9 Volta
10 Beans
12 Accra
14 Ghana
16 Tropics
18 South
19 Ghana Cocoa Board
20 Ferment
Q1 a All the cocoa-growing countries lie fully, or almost fully, within the tropics. In fact most cocoa is grown between 10 °N and 10 °S of the equator.
b This is because of the growing conditions needed: a high average temperature, plenty of rain, and high humidity. The UK does not provide these conditions. But note that some countries within the tropics don’t either, because they have too little rain. Cocoa only grows in the UK in places where these conditions have been replicated, e.g. the Eden Project.
Q2 Students’ answers should be from among these countries:
a Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo,
Uganda, Tanzania, Madagascar.
b India, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia. Note that Papua New Guinea is (and the rest of the island it shares) is counted as part of Oceania.
c Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil. (The question asks only about South America, not Central America.)
Taking it further2: The history of cocoa and chocolate
This summary of the history of cocoa and chocolate provides a broad context for Ghana’s cocoa farming.
Section 3: The future
The future
In this section we explore any challenges which cocoa farmers may face. Ask students to suggest why farmers might not be able to get the materials and information they need. (What they learned earlier about poverty in Ghana might give them clues?) And why might young people from rural areas be attracted to towns and cities? Does it happen in the UK? What if farm productivity continued to fall, and young people continued to leave?
Key highlights from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) report
The information below is based on research commissioned by Cadbury conducted independently by Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and the University of Ghana. The study examines the current state of cocoa farming in Ghana, identifies the potential social and economic obstacles that may face the country’s 720,000 cocoa farmers, and suggests solutions to address the issues facing the long term, sustainable production of Ghanaian cocoa. The report can be found on the Cadbury website.
…Cocoa plays a key role in the development of Ghana’s economy. Growth in cocoa output can contribute to overall economic prosperity and reduction of poverty. There are now an estimated 720,000 cocoa farmers.
…The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has played a pivotal role in positioning Ghana within the global market, and ensuring the quality of its cocoa exports. However, the Ghanaian cocoa sector faces a number of challenges, both internal and external, that need to be addressed to ensure the future sustainability of its production and position in the global cocoa-chocolate market.
…Cocoa production remains characterised by small-scale farming in many countries, particularly West Africa. Over the past decade there has been a decline in overall quality of cocoa beans, through short-cutting of more costly production methods. This runs counter to the increased demand for high quality cocoa beans. Ghana has benefited from the continued role of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) which has provided support to farmers and coordinated the marketing of Ghanaian cocoa on international markets. This has helped to maintain the quality of Ghanaian cocoa which earns an international price premium. More importantly, Ghana’s high quality cocoa has meant that it has been able to sell more of its cocoa than other producer countries on forward markets (up to 70%). This enables domestic producer prices to be set in a manner which protects farmers from seasonal volatility in the markets. Ghana is in a position to expand within the mainstream quality segment of the cocoa market. Ghana faces significant challenges in maintaining the future sustainability of its cocoa production. Annual production of cocoa is well below its potential capacity, with productivity (output per hectare) at 40% of its estimated potential. It has an ageing farmer population, and faces an exodus of youth from the sector.
Consumer demand for higher quality chocolate is likely to continue – which manufacturers, processors and producers have a joint interest in meeting. Ghana has the potential to expand within the quality segment of the value chain, and COCOBOD to negotiate on behalf of farmers in international fora. However, it faces significant challenges in modernising the cocoa sector. Crucial factors are the need to raise the productivity of cocoa farming, enhance social provision in cocoa communities, and attract the youth who are essential for future innovation and sustainability of production.’
The Cadbury Cocoa Partnership will work in partnership to help to address some of these issues.
You can download and save higher resolution, full-screen versions of all the video clips featured on this page in the Resource Bank
Cadbury helps out
Ask for reasons why Cadbury is concerned about the issues faced by the cocoa farmers. Why should it matter to Cadbury?
Productivity
One of the farmers shown is a female. You could ask students whether they think there are not many female farmers in the UK.
Quality of life
Ask students to suggest an order of priority for these improvements, on behalf of the local community.
The Cadbury Cocoa Partnership
You can find out more about the Cadbury Cocoa Partnership in the Ghana, Cadbury and the Cadbury Cocoa Partnership section of the teachers’ notes.
Ask students to summarise what they learned about the Cadbury Cocoa Partnership through the video. Has it told them any more about Ghana?
You can download and save higher resolution, full-screen versions of all the video clips featured on this page in the Resource Bank
What’s in it for Cadbury?
Did the students know anything about Cadbury’s history? You can find out more on the Cadbury website.
It must be sustainable
Explain to students that sustainable development means using resources to meet human needs in a way that preserves the environment so that these needs can be met in the future as well as the present.
Ask students whether they have come across sustainable development in any other context.
Some Partnership projects
Students are asked to decide whether each project has social, economic or environmental benefits and to explain why. When they’ve finished, they are shown feedback which they can compare with their own answers.
Adjeikrom: a case study
Students should enjoy this activity. The sketch map and photos will give them a good idea of what a rural village in the cocoa-growing region is like and how Cadbury Cocoa Partnership projects are helping to make a difference.
Invite observations and comment about the village. In what ways is it like villages in the UK? In what ways is it different?
When looking at the section about Earthwatch, ask students:
- What do you think Adjeikrom has to offer tourists?
- Who might go there?
- How and why does Adjeikrom benefit and suffer socially, economically and environmentally?
- How could tourism be managed in Adjeikrom to balance advantages and disadvantages (sustainable development)?
As an extension activity, you could ask students what they might say about the Cocoa Farmers Newspaper if they were a cocoa farmer who couldn’t read because he/she never went to school. You could ask them produce their own illustrated article for the newspaper on one of these topics:
- Make sure you keep the area under the cocoa trees weeded. Otherwise pods may drop into the weeds and get lost.
- Don’t throw away the pod cases after you have taken the beans out. Leave them to rot, then dig them into the ground around your trees as fertiliser. This will help to give you a larger crop next time.
- Mistletoe needs to be cut down if it grows on cocoa trees. It gets in the way of cutting down pods, and also acts as a parasite, limiting the tree’s growth, or even killing it.
The drawings must be simple, with a really clear message.
Just the start
After students have watched the video, you could invite comments on the Cadbury Cocoa Partnership.
You can download and save higher resolution, full-screen versions of all the video clips featured on this page in the Resource Bank
Over to you
This final screen of the section gives access to the worksheets and “Taking it further”.
This worksheet is quite demanding. Students could discuss it in pairs or small groups, or you could have a whole-class discussion, before students fill in their sheets individually.
This is a ‘mystery’. There is no definite right or wrong answer. The aim is to select relevant strips of text, and arrange them logically, so as to build up a satisfying answer to a question. Some text strips are only partly relevant, but students will wish to include them.
Through even the irrelevant text, students will learn more about Ghana.
Students could work on their own for this, in class or for homework. But they are likely to benefit more through carrying out the activity in groups, and discussing their choices. In this case you could cut out the strips in advance and put them in envelopes, one for each group.
Taking it further 3: Sustainable cocoa farming
This reinforces and slightly extends the material in the section about the Cadbury Cocoa Partnership, and sustainability.