Success Story: Farmer Organization Member Increases Yields with Training
South West Region, Cameroon
Edward Acham is one of 750 members of the Ekona Farmers Cooperative located in the South West Region of Cameroon. He is 52 years old and has four children. His cocoa farm of approximately 5 hectares is about 20 years old and yields had declined to an average of 2 metric tons per year for the entire farm. Like many farmers, he was reluctant to prune his trees as he believed that more branches would lead to more pods. Due to the recurrent problems of capsids and black pod disease on his farm, he regularly spent XAF 70,000 (approximately US$150) on agrochemicals in an attempt to control these issues. After visiting the farm of 2008 farmer field school graduate, Mr. Acham decided to enroll in the next round of training sessions.
In 2009, Mr. Acham joined the farmer field school sessions facilitated by Ignasia Tatah. Mrs. Tatah primarily works with members of the Ekona Farmers Cooperative and has trained a total of 50 of its members. Through the sessions, Mr. Acham learned techniques that helped him to increase the productivity of his aging farm. He started to prune his trees and maintain them at a maximum height of 3 meters. He learned to identify individual trees that had declined in production and replace them with hybrids from his cooperative’s nursery.
By applying integrated pest management techniques, he has been able to reduce his use of agrochemicals and lowered his spending on these products from XAF 70,000 to XAF 25,000. As a result, Mr. Acham harvested 3 tons of cocoa in 2010 and aspires to harvest 5 tons in the future. In addition to increasing his yields, Mr. Acham also has improved the quality of his beans through proper fermentation and drying, resulting in a higher price for his cocoa.
His wife, Helen Fon, has been assisting with the pruning and hopes to participate in farmer field school training in the near future.
WCF thanks IITA/STCP – Cameroon for submitting this story.
Read about the Sustainable Tree Crops Program