What do cocoa farmers eat?

Cocoa farmers' live hard lives. Their average income, earned per year is £160. Despite growing much of their own food, they need money to pay for many essentials such as inputs for their farms, school fees, medicine, doctor's fees, transport and clothes.

Cocoa farmers face a number of other problems too:•The price of cocoa on the world market continues to fluctuate up and down.

•No long-term security, and in some situations, some can't even cover farming costs.

•Farmers often only receive a fraction of the price their beans sell for on the world market because there are several people in the trading chain. In the early 90's, cocoa farmers were getting less than half of what international buyers were paying.

•Farmers need to buy things due to they can't make or grow themselves, such as tools, fertilisers and pesticides, medicine, food and clothes, are expensive.

•Farmers are often paid by local cocoa buyers using cheques or vouchers, which the farmers then can't cash, or which bounce.

•Farmers are often underpaid by local cocoa buyers using 'fixed' scales, set to show a lower reading than the actual weight of their cocoa beans.

•Even in hard times, it is difficult for farmers to switch to other crops, which may take time to grow and need new farming skills.