Theobroma Cacao, more commonly known as cocoa derives from the tropical regions of South and Central America and was first cultivated there almost 2000 years ago. In regards to West Africa, four of its countries are a part of the ten that claim over 90 percent of the world’s cocoa production. Those four countries being Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Cameroon and the most significant being Ghana. Because Ghana is the second largest cocoa exporter in the world. Cocoa is also the country’s main cash crop. These attributes that cocoa brings to Ghana have had impactful affects on the country’s culture, society and its people. The cocoa bean was first cultivated by Tetteh Quarshie, a Ghanaian blacksmith who in 1895 established a farm using the cocoa bean in the Eastern region of Ghana. That farm later turned into a nursery for all pioneering cocoa farmers in Ghana and lead to the spread of the bean in forests across the country. Because of Quarshie’s influence nearly two decades later the cocoa bean has become a pillar of Ghana’s economy. The crops generate about $2 billion in foreign exchange annually and is a major contributor to Ghana’s government revenue and GDP. Cocoa is cultivated in six regions in Ghana: the Western, Central, Brong Ahafo, Eastern, Ashanti and the Volta regions. All of which house nearly 800,000 cocoa farmers and their families that also makeup several of the ethnic groups of Ghana. Most of Ghana’s cocoa production is done on small farms of 4 or 5 acres. The farmers sometimes earn minimal wages, can’t cover their farming cost and don’t have long term job security because of the tittering price of cocoa on the international market. To solve the problems they face the farmers form ‘Fair Trade’ cooperatives. Such as ‘Kuapa Kokoo’ which empowers farmers in their efforts to gain a dignified livelihood, develop environmentally friendly cultivation of cocoa and to get more women involved in their activit