Despite the many commitments made to ensure equal opportunities for all human beings, women are still behind men due to certain prejudices.

These conscious or unconscious biases continue to pose greater challenges to women empowerment and independence, particularly in rural areas.

The Cocoa Life initiative of the Mondelez International, a leading chocolate manufacturer, is therefore teaching women how to engage in agriculture and also introduce them to other areas of life that makes a woman independent.

Mrs. Yaa Pepra Amekudzi, the Country Lead of the Mondelez International Cocoa Life, said research indicated that more than 70 percent of the task that guaranteed yields and quality of the cocoa beans were usually done by women.

Yet, she said, "when we describe cocoa farmers, the description is hardly female ".

At Amposaso, a cocoa farming community in the Wassa East District of the Western Region, the Cocoa Life Project is changing lives of women.

The Cocoa Life Project

The project is working on increasing women's involvement and empowerment in farming communities.

Mrs Amukudzi said many transformational stories had been recorded in beneficiary communities, transformation that is gradual and positive.

Training

Already, women extension volunteers had been formed to serve as middle-women and help their counterparts to be strong and be accomplished and prosperous farmers through knowledge sharing.

The women extension workers facilitate education on cocoa farm maintenance, hands on demonstrations, women empowerment, savings, environmental sustainability,development of community action plan and the well-being of the child.

The Cocoa Life Initiative also offers support and enhanced skills to women in acquiring their own lands to start their own farms or access their own farms through share-cropping.

Labour

In order to lessen the burden of hiring labour, the women have formed groups which support each other especially during harvesting and pruning.

Mrs Amekudzi said women played a critical role in the cocoa supply chain and must be appreciated and supported.

Madam Esi Badu, a cocoa farmer, recounted the benefits of the project and the financial empowerment it had given her.

She said: "Now I can save to pay my children's school fees. "