Cocoa Livelihoods Program

Project Dates: 2009-2013

Countries: Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia and Nigeria

Contributors: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, major branded manufacturers: The Hershey Company, Kraft Foods and Mars Inc., cocoa processors: Archer Daniels Midland Company, Barry Callebaut, Blommer Chocolate Company and Cargill; supply chain managers and allied industries: Armajaro, Ecom Agrocacao, Guittard Chocolate Company, Noble Resources S.A., Olam International Ltd., Petra Foods Ltd., Starbucks Coffee Company and Transmar Commodity Group Ltd; and contributors to Technical Partners: The German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)

Technical Partners: World Cocoa Foundation (manager), International Institute of Tropical Agriculture/Sustainable Tree Crops Program, Agribusiness Services International, GTZ, SOCODEVI and TechnoServe

Overview:

The Cocoa Livelihoods Program will work with approximately 200,000 smallholder, cocoa-growing households in West and Central Africa.  The overall goal of the program is to increase farmer income while strengthening local service capacity.

 

Program Objectives:

• Improvement of marketing efficiency
• Improvement of cocoa production efficiency and quality at the farm level
• Improvement of farmer competitiveness on diversified cocoa farms

 

Progress to Date:

 

• 4,121 farmers trained on planting, replanting and diversification.  Farmers in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria were trained in the latter half of 2009.  The curriculum focused on nursery development, training farmers on how to rehabilitate and diversify their farms and post production practices for the farm such as pruning.

• Challenge grant awarded to Ivoirian research institute.  A grant was awarded to Centre National de Recherche Agronomique (CNRA), the national agricultural research institute of Côte d’Ivoire, for the development of innovative approaches to a training module on a diagnostic tool that will enable farmers to better identify how to regenerate older farms.

• Innovative financing and risk management tools developed.  A model for a financial product that will enable farmers to access timely agro-chemical inputs and farm tools has been identified.  In addition to the inputs, the model also includes farmer access to input training, business education and rigorous monitoring to ensure proper application of inputs.  

• MOUs signed with three participating governments.  Memorandums of understanding (MOUs) were signed with three of the five participating-country governments and the remaining two will be completed in the first half of 2010.  Collaboration with the national governments will ensure that the activities specifically meet the national as well as regional challenges and enhance the sustainability of the program.  Program launch ceremonies were held in Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria and Cameroon; a ceremony in Liberia will take place in late 2010.

Program Updates and Highlights

 

The World Cocoa Foundation has been alerted of hoax emails, claiming lottery prizes associated with the Cocoa Livelihoods Program.  These emails are false and should be ignored.  We apologize for any inconvenience they may have caused.