Newsletter | January Thru March of 2009
President’s Message
Dear WCF Members, Partners and Friends,
The first few months of 2009 have been an eventful period for WCF. In January, we announced our sustainability principles and goals. Centered on the principles of profit, people and planet, the goals will guide WCF’s programming over the coming years. The announcement of these principles and goals was the culmination of stakeholder dialogues begun two years ago, based on programs we have been implementing since 2000.
In February, we announced the new Cocoa Livelihoods Program funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and leading chocolate industry members. The program aims to increase the incomes of approximately 200,000 cocoa farmers in Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon and Liberia. The five-year program will be managed by WCF and implemented by a consortium of IITA/STCP, ACDI/VOCA, GTZ, SOCODEVI, and TechnoServe. Financial and in-kind contributions for the Cocoa Livelihoods Program come from major branded manufacturers The Hershey Company, Kraft Foods and Mars Incorporated; cocoa processors Archer Daniels Midland Company, Barry Callebaut, Blommer Chocolate Company and Cargill; and supply chain managers and allied industries Armajaro, Ecom-Agrocacao, Olam International Ltd. and Starbucks Coffee Company.
WCF is pleased to welcome two new staff members to work on this new initiative. Catherine Alston is the program coordinator for the Cocoa Livelihoods Program and Holly Houston is the finance and budget analyst.
On another note, a reminder that our next Partnership Meeting takes place in Washington, DC on June 3 and 4, 2009. The meeting’s theme is “The Smallholder Cocoa Farmer in a Globalized World”. Currently, registration is at 50% of capacity. Those interested in attending are encouraged to contact Clementine Leahy as soon as possible. We look forward to seeing many of you at the meeting.
Regards,
Bill Guyton
Cameroon: Young Farmer becomes Leader of Farmer Organization
Mr. Dioni Menshack is a 24 year old cocoa farmer in the district of Konye in southwestern Cameroon. He has a 10 hectare cocoa farm where, in 2005, he was producing two metric tons of cocoa which he sold individually to a licensed buying agent for 650 CFA per kilogram.
In 2006, Mr. Menshack participated in a farmer field school run by the Sustainable Tree Crops Program in partnership with another program called the Tree Crops Production Marketing and Livelihoods Program (PAP2CP – funded by the US Department of Agriculture). Through the program, Mr. Menshack learned new techniques to increase his productivity. He also learned more about KONAFCOOP, a local farmer organization with which he was registered but not an active member. By implementing the new techniques and becoming more active in KONAFCOOP, Mr. Menshack has increased his yields and his revenues. In 2006, he harvested three metric tons of cocoa; in 2007, five metric tons; and in the 2008/2009 season seven metric tons. By participating in KONAFCOOP’s group selling arrangements, he now receives 750 CFA per kilogram.
Mr. Menshack’s increased income allows him to assist his parents with paying his younger siblings’ school-related expenses. Recently, he was elected chairman of a branch of KONAFCOOP in Dipenda, a small village in Konye. He encourages other young adults in his community to become involved in agriculture and farmer organizations.
The Sustainable Tree Crops Program (STCP) is a public-private partnership with support from African governments, the US Agency for International Development, the World Cocoa Foundation, and the chocolate industry. The program is managed by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA).
WCF thanks IITA/ STCP-Cameroon for contributing this story.
Vietnam: Cocoa Entrepreneur Grows His Business
Mr. Trinh Van Thanh was first featured in the WCF newsletter in August 2007. He was a training facilitator for the SUCCESS Alliance program in 2004 and had established his own small business that included a nursery, fermentary and cocoa buying operations. In 2007, he had just established a small grinding operation to produce cocoa for use in café mocha drinks.
In 2008, Mr. Thanh was able to further expand his business. He purchased a truck to collect cocoa pods for his fermentary and to transport dry beans to exporters. He established new buying stations in four provinces. His nursery operation has expanded from 30,000 seedlings in 2007/2008 to 100,000 in 2009. Mr. Thanh also began producing chocolate on a small scale.
Mr. Thanh continues to work with the Duc Hiep Cocoa Club formed under the SUCCESS Alliance program. He visits cocoa farmers to provide advice and occasionally gathers the club together to share new techniques he has learned from his travels to other areas. In 2008, he helped the cocoa club successfully apply for a challenge grant from WCF. With this funding, the cocoa club is developing an indirect heat drying system using coffee husks as burning material.
The Cocoa Project in Vietnam is funded by WCF and implemented by Nong Lam University. SUCCESS Alliance Vietnam is supported by the US Department of Agriculture, US Agency for International Development, World Cocoa Foundation, Mars Incorporated, ACDI/VOCA and various local organizations.
WCF thanks Nong Lam University for contributing this story.
Costa Rica: The International Cocoa Collection at CATIE
Recently WCF consultant Eric Rosenquist visited CATIE in Turrialba, Costa Rica where WCF supports research to develop frosty pod-resistant varieties and the conservation of the international cacao collection located there.
The international cacao collection was established at CATIE in 1944 with approximately 550 accessions. At present, the collection has expanded to over 1,000 accessions (1,086 to be exact) including some very rare wild materials. In cooperation with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), molecular tools have been used to correctly identify the genetic heritage of individual accessions. CATIE cooperates closely with the international quarantine center in Reading, UK, to ensure that materials shipped around the world are virus and disease free.
Private industry, recognizing the importance of an international collection was involved with the establishment of the collection in 1944. The purpose was to encourage breeding and selection activities and the exchange of elite materials to producers worldwide; an industry mission which is retained today. WCF and USDA support the maintenance of the core collection and some breeding activities. Mars, Inc, in collaboration with USDA/ARS Miami, has been instrumental in expanding breeding trials to a large scale, identifying highly productive, good quality cocoa cultivars that have demonstrated disease resistance, supported by nearly 10 years worth of field data.
WCF thanks Eric Rosenquist for contributing this story.
Success in applied breeding is essential to a sustainable cocoa production system in which disease resistance, high yield, and good quality characteristics are governing principles. For a long time, breeding efforts were sporadic and almost entirely directed towards the improvement of yield or isolating specific flavor characteristics, with little emphasis on durable disease and pest resistance. Further limitations were related to inadequate or non-existent germplasm collections with little genetic diversity. As a whole, in additive plant breeding efforts, more diversity is better, for the simple fact that there is a greater selection of traits from which farmers and professional breeders can choose.
The major constraint to breeding perennial tree crops is time; it takes a minimum of 4-5 years per generation of cocoa trees and at least 15 years to collect data and comparatively evaluate specific traits; consequently, any technique to speed this process is welcome and most of these have involved molecular biology, either through genome mapping projects or identifying specific genetic traits likely to convey some desirable characteristic (e.g., disease resistance, flavor, etc.).
Plant selection and breeding has been carried out for approximately 12,000 years. Compared to many tree crops, (e.g., apple, pistachio) cocoa is a relatively new cultivar having been subject to selection and breeding for approximately 2,000 years. Virtually all breeding efforts depend upon selection in which desirable characteristics are identified and conserved and then crosses, generally achieved by cross-fertilization in which desirable characteristics are added to parent plants. With the breakthrough of molecular biology in the last 25 years, it is now possible to map an entire plant genome; or portions of the genome, identify sections of the genome producing favorable traits, and more quickly adapt these to the traditional breeding process in a system known as molecular marker assisted breeding (MAS). There has been a dramatic increase of activity in the last ten years. The next issue of the WCF newsletter will summarize programs and activities in this area.
WCF thanks Eric Rosenquist for contributing this story.
Click on the links below to read more:
Charlie Feezel attends ECHOES stakeholder meeting in Accra, Ghana
Norwegian Association of Chocolate Manufacturers visits ECHOES sites
Bill Guyton travels to Trinidad
As a member of the Corporate Council on Africa, WCF worked to develop the Agricultural Development and Agribusiness section of The United States and Africa: Policy Recommendations from the American Private Sector for the Obama Administration