Furthermore, organic farming encourages on-farm agrobiodiversity, both through the diversity of plant varieties cultivated , and improves farmers economic profitability.Organic farming aims at creating a sustainable agricultural production system, including economic, environmental, and social sustainability.In Ghana, the potential of organic and its suitability as a future solution to some key farming system challenges is still not recognised.Studies on cocoa production in Ghana often focus on one dimension of sustainability.Thus, this study to the best of our knowledge will provide the first holistic sustainability assessment of organic and conventional cocoa farming systems in Ghana.The study seeks to answer the question, does the sustainability performance of organic cocoa farming system in Ghana differ from conventional farming? The Organic Farm System for Africa database made available by Research Institute of Organic Agriculture for analysis.The dataset provided information for over 300 indicators covering 6 themes and 14 sub-themes for the environmental integrity, four themes and 14 sub-themes for economic resilience, six themes and 16 social well-being sub-themes and five themes and 14 sub-themes for good governance.In Atwima Mponua District , a typical cocoa farming system is defined based on the predominance of smallholder cocoa farming households, engaged in either practicing conventional i.e., “business-asusual” or based on initiatives termed environmentally friendly.Cocoa farming systems are characterised by the different crops grown,vertical grow system and the livestock types reared.Cocoa farming systems used both family and hired labour for farming activities.

The organic cocoa farms are certified through Internal Certification System.These criteria guided the selection of 398 cocoa farmers, out of which 71 were organic cocoa farmers, with 327 conventional cocoa farmers.The OFSA covered three months data collection period from December 2016 to February 2017.Sustainability performance in terms of environmental integrity is illustrated in Fig.3.The five sub-themes, waste reduction and disposal, energy use, material use, genetic diversity and species diversity showed the highest sustainability performance between 60% and 80% for both organic and conventional cocoa farming systems.The lowest sustainability performance was shown by soil quality and freedom from stress for both organic and conventional farming systems that fell between the scale of 20% and 40%.Sustainability performance with respect to greenhouse gases fell within the scales 61%–80% and 40%–60% for organic and conventional farming systems, respectively.Sustainability performance of animal health and land degradation fell within the scales 41%–60% and 21%–40% for organic and conventional farming systems, respectively.Mean rank difference between the different farming systems based on the sub-themes of Environmental Integrity is shown in Table 2.Mean rank scores for the organic farming system ranged between126.3 and 260.6.Mean rank scores for conventional farming system ranged between 103.2 and 199.6.The two cocoa farming systems differed significantly for all the sub-themes except for waste reduction and disposal, and freedom from stress, where the pvalues were above p = 0.05.Economic resilience sustainability performance is illustrated in Fig.4.The risk management and profitability sub-themes showed the highest sustainability performance between 61% and 80% for both organic and conventional cocoa farming systems.The seven sub-themes, community investment, long-ranging investment, the stability of production, the stability of the market, product information, liquidity and value creation showed moderate sustainability performance for both organic and conventional farming systems that fell between the scale 41% and 60%.

A lower sustainability performance was shown by internal investment and stability of supply for both organic and conventional farming systems that fell between the scale 21% and 40%.Food safety and local procurement showed the lowest sustainability performance between the scale 0%–20%, for both organic and conventional farming systems.Mean rank difference between the different farming systems based on the sub-themes of Economic resilience is shown in Table 3.Mean rank scores for the organic farming system ranged between 191.2 and 259.2.Mean rank scores for conventional farming system ranged between 186.6 and 202.0.The two cocoa farming systems differed significantly for most sub-themes with the exception of, community investment, long-ranging investment, the stability of production, the stability of supply, risk management, food safety, value creation and local procurement, where the p-values were above p = 0.05.Social well being sustainability performance is illustrated in Fig.5.Workplace safety and health provisions showed the highest sustainability performance between 60% and 80% for both organic and conventional cocoa farming systems.The lowest sustainability performance was shown by seven sub-themes, capacity development, rights of suppliers, forced labour, child labour, freedom of association and bargaining rights, non-discrimination and food sovereignty for both organic and conventional farming systems that fell between the scale 20% and 40%.Sustainability performance of fair access to means of production fell within the scales 21%–40% and 0%–20% for organic and conventional farming systems, respectively.Sustainability performance for gender equality and support to vulnerable people fell within the scales 61%–80% and 41%–60% for organic and conventional farming systems, respectively.The mean rank differences between the two farming systems within the sub-themes of Social well-being are shown in Table 4.Mean rank scores for the organic farming system ranged between 189.2 and 266.2.Mean rank scores for conventional farming system ranged between 185.0 and 201.7.

The two cocoa farming systems differed significantly for some subthemes with the exception of, quality of life, capacity development, fair access to means of production, responsible buyers, rights of suppliers, employment relations, forced labour, workplace safety and health provision, public health and food sovereignty, where the p-values were above p = 0.05.In a review of farming systems by Seufert & Ramankutty , they also concluded that overall farm sizes of organic production are smaller.The current study is consistent with a study by Seufert & Ramankutty who found that organic farming is labour intensive in terms of weeding.Overall, the organic cocoa farming system spends more labour hours per season on various cultural activities compared to conventional.The organic farming system requires more labour than conventional systems , especially for labour-intensive commodities, fruits, and tree crops.As suggested in the literature, organic can have positive effects on environmental outcomes.In the case study, a limited to good performance was found in the two cocoa farming systems, not only for the organic farming system.Indeed, the studied conventionally managed cocoa farms are characterised by low-input operations with low use of synthetic fertilisers and pesticides.The organic farms, on the other hand, use low or no organic inputs explaining the greenhouse gases scales of 61%–80% and 40%–60% for organic and conventional farming systems.Akrofi-Atitianti et al.also found low input use in Atwima Mponua District.Similarly, in Ethiopia, Winter et al.found a moderate to good environmental performance for conventional and certified coffee systems and attributed it to the low use of external inputs.Our analysis showed that the organic farming system is better in greenhouse gases emission reduction and in terms of improvement in air quality.According to Akrofi-Atitianti et al., a major driving force for an improved performance for organic in terms of greenhouse gases is the low or no use of inputs.Similar studies in Ecuador by Bonisoli et al.for banana cropping system is consistent with the findings.The finding is also verified by Fess and Benedito that organic farming promotes carbon sequestration and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Organic farming systems showed better water management practices, such as the treatment of waste water in terms of disposal or reuse, water storage capacity and the use of rainwater compared to the conventional farming system.Studies conducted by Bonisoli et al., Berbe´c et al.and De Olde et al.found a statistical difference between organic and conventional in Poland, Denmark, and Ecuador, respectively.We observed measures that reduce land degradation in organic farming system to be significantly higher compared to the conventional farming system.Other studies show that organic farming contributes to soil building and soil structure by improving the cation exchange capacity of soil biotic and physical properties.In our case study,mobile grow system organic farming systems are more diverse in terms of ecosystems, species and genetics compared to conventional.Those findings are consistent with Bandanaa et al.who found high flora diversity in organic cocoa farming system compared to conventional in the same geographic context.In terms of material use, energy use and waste reduction, the current study found the organic farming system to be significantly better in performance compared to conventional.The literature says organic farms tend to be more energy-efficient than conventional.Our results showed that in most sub-themes, the sustainability performance ranged from unacceptable to good performance for both organic and conventional cocoa farming systems.In many sub-themes such as, community investment, long-ranging investment, the stability of production, the stability of the market, product information, liquidity and value creation, the performance is moderate for both organic and conventional farming systems.Moderate performance exposes farmers of both cocoa farming systems to market shocks in terms of cocoa prices.In the case study, the organic market is not well established.Some farmers sell most of their organic beans as rain forest beans or conventional.This is because the premium obtained by selling organic beans is often delayed.Winter et al.also made similar observations for coffee farming systems in Ethiopia, as farmers sell their coffee to private buyers as conventional produce.

The mean difference between organic and conventional farming systems explained that six of the sub themes in organic were significantly different from conventional.Other empirical studies showed that organic farming is economically better than conventional in terms of investment.The organic farming system is more profitable than the conventional system due to price premiums, most especially so when the crops are grown for exports.The current study found in many sub-themes, such as “Internal Investment,” “Profitability,” and “Liquidity,” that organic farming system is significantly better than conventional.Though both cocoa farming systems are exposed to market shocks, organic cocoa farmers will always receive a premium on the cocoa beans either sold as organic or RA.Also, the organic farming system enhances food quality and product information compared to the conventional due to improved traceability.The social well being sustainability performance ranges from limited to good performance.The lowest sustainability performance of most sub-themes was labour related.In the case study, mostly family labour or hired labour is used in farm operations.Berlan verifies the finding on the use of family labour in cocoa production in Ghana but adds that, it is unacceptable if children are being involved in hazardous activities.Other studies in Nigeria confirms the use of family or hired labour in cocoa production and suggests sharecropping as a dominant labour option due to dishonesty and dedication of family/hired labour.Capacity development, forced labour, child labour, freedom of association and bargaining rights were among the lowest for both organic and conventional farming systems.Especially for child labour, there was no difference between the farming systems because children within the case study were not engaged in hazardous works.According to a U.S.Embassy-Accra, January 2020 report, there is low incidence of child labour in the cocoa sector due to the enforcement of child labor laws and the “conduct of national dialogue on Child Labor Free Zones in the cocoa industry”.The organic and conventional farming system mean rank scores for social well being showed significant differences for mostly labour related sub themes.The results for ‘Freedom of association’ and ‘right to bargaining’ suggest that organic farmers have access to more external labour and the workers bargaining rights.This finding is consistent with Giovannucci et al.study of certified coffee farming system in Kenya, Peru, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Nicaragua.With regards to gender equality, child labour, and support to vulnerable people, there is a significant trend in favour of organic farming system.Studies in Asante Bekwai, Atwima Mponua Districts and India have suggested that organic cocoa farming is a welfare and livelihood enhancer, and promotes gender equality in the workplace and encourages full participation for vulnerable in vibrant rural communities.The organic farming system performed significantly better compared to conventional in terms of indigenous knowledge since traditional and cultural knowledge used by farmers is protected.This is consistent with findings by Ssebunya et al.on coffee farming systems in Uganda and Schader et al.in Africa and Europe.The performance of both farming systems mostly ranges between the scale unacceptable and best performance for this dimension.The lowest sustainability performance was shown by the sub-themes’ mission statement’ and ‘legitimacy’ for both organic and conventional farming systems.Employment conditions on farms are not stable, explaining the low performance in legitimacy.Organic farmers are verbally committed to sustainability topics more than conventional, hence better performance in full cost accounting and mission statement.Similarly, Winter et al.found mission statements to score low among coffee farming systems in Ethiopia.This was explained as Ethiopian coffee farmers partial commitment to sustainability topics and their lack of evidence to show for specific planned improvements.