In a cocoa-growing corner of Ghana, a grandmother is proving that caring for the land and caring for a family can grow together. Her story was published by Positive News on October 22, 2026, as part of its “Portraits of a Shared Land” series.
Meet Susana Afrifa Ankrah
Susana Afrifa Ankrah is a cocoa farmer, a mother and a grandmother. Her community lies near the Atewa Range in south-eastern Ghana, a surviving fragment of tropical forest. She describes what the forest gives her neighbors: cleaner air, cooler land and rainfall that helps crops grow. Local herbalists also gather remedies there for illnesses such as malaria and diabetes.
“The forest gives us fresh air,” she says.
A different way to farm
Soon after the Ghana Cocoa Forest REDD+ Programme began in 2019, Susana joined it. The programme is run jointly by the country’s Forestry Commission and the Cocoa Board. She moved away from clearing and burning land to make room for crops.
Instead, she now uses:
- organic fertiliser and composting;
- hybrid cocoa seeds that suit shade;
- agroforestry, which means growing crops among native trees such as African mahogany.
She also spread her work across more than cocoa. She keeps bees, raises pigs and snails, and grows peppers, pawpaw, plantain and cassava. The programme supported her with tools and equipment, including cutlasses, sprayers, boots and knapsacks, along with business advice.
What came back to her family and town
Susana estimates that her profit margins improved by about 80%. That is her own estimate, as reported by Positive News. With her growing income, she started a daycare nursery and a bakery. Together they employ 17 workers.
She has 16 grandchildren, and she hopes some of them will carry on farming. That detail may be the heart of the story. Protecting a forest is not only about this year’s harvest. It is about what is left for the children who come after us.
Why this story matters
Stories about farming and forests can sound big and distant. Susana’s makes them personal. She learned new methods, accepted help, and then turned her gains into jobs for her neighbors.
It is also a reminder that good care for creation is often practical and humble: compost, shade trees, patience and hard work. The Bible describes the blessing of a life rooted well:
“And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”
— Psalm 1:3 (KJV)
We want to be careful here. One farmer’s story does not mean every farmer in Ghana or anywhere else has had the same results, and the 80% figure is her own estimate. The programme’s wider results are not covered in the article we read. But the hope in her story is real: a woman, a forest and a family, all growing together.
Take it home
- Talk with your children or grandchildren about where chocolate comes from, and about the farmers who grow cocoa.
- Plant something this season, even one herb pot or one tree, and watch it together.
- Pray for farming families around the world, that their work would be fruitful and fairly rewarded.
Through every storm, we rise together, and sometimes we rise under the shade of a tree someone chose to protect.
What is one small thing you could “plant” this week that your family will enjoy for years to come?
Sources: Positive News, “The farmer growing a future under Ghana’s trees,” by Martin Wright (October 22, 2026); Global Good News, listing of October 23, 2026; King James Bible Online, Psalm 1:3.
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