For some people anything is good if it's made of chocolate. But many people don’t know how chocolate is made or where it comes from.

Chocolate is made from cocoa beans found in West Africa. As the world’s demand for chocolate rises, many cocoa farmers struggle with low yields and low incomes. More than 90 percent of cocoa farmers in Ghana, the world’s second largest producer of cocoa, live on less than a dollar a day per person.

Researchers are studying if certifying farmers as trained cocoa producers can benefit their businesses.

Ebenezer Offei Ansah, a masters student in the Department of Community Sustainability at Michigan State University, interviewed cocoa farmers and producers in Ghana to find out how certification programs work. His research could identify problems in cocoa production in Ghana and other cocoa producing countries.

Photo: Ebenezer Offei Ansah