Newsletter | July thru September of 2008
President’s Message
Dear WCF Members, Partners and Friends,
ACDI/VOCA International Leadership Award
WCF was very honored to receive the ACDI/VOCA International Leadership Award earlier this month. WCF Chairman Kip Walk accepted the award for WCF at a luncheon event in Washington, DC. WCF and ACDI/VOCA began partnerships through the SUCCESS Alliance over eight years ago in Southeast Asia. These programs have reached more than185,000 cocoa farmers in Latin America and Southeast Asia.
Highlights of this Quarter's Newsletter
One of the key elements of the Farmer Field School methodology is that farmers learn to approach decision-making in a more scientific way – by making observations, recording information and analyzing results. This addition of our newsletter highlights two farmers who have taken these skills to the next level. In the Philippines, Johnny Silva is an active participant in research efforts with the University of Mindinao. In Nigeria, Buhari Safiu shares with us the story of his community and the nursery they established with pods from the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria.
Borlaug Fellows Program
As these stories suggest, strong local research institutions are essential to supporting farmers in their work. Towards this end, WCF is pleased to partner with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to support the Norman E. Borlaug International Agricultural Science and Technology Fellows Program. This month, we welcome the first fellow Abu Mustapha Dadzie of the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana. He will complete an eight-week fellowship at the USDA’s Sub-Tropical Horticultural Research Station in Miami working with Dr. Ray Schnell. We look forward to welcoming additional fellows from West Africa, Central America, the Philippines and Indonesia over the next year.
Regards, Bill Guyton
Upcoming Events
The WCF Partnership Meeting will take place in Hamburg October 8-9. Presentations will be posted on the WCF website by October 24.
For those in the Washington, DC area, the World Food Law Lecture and Symposium will take place on October 9 and 10, respectively. This year’s theme is “Small Farmers and Food Security”.
New Member Spotlight
In this issue, we highlight one of the World Cocoa Foundation’s new members. Click on the company’s name to learn more.
“As the world’s leading cocoa port, Amsterdam is pleased to support WCF in achieving sustainable and responsible cocoa production.”
-- James Hallworth, Commercial Manager Bulk Logistics, Port of Amsterdam
West Africa: Nursery Business Improves Community Livelihoods
Mr. Buhari Safiu is a farmer trained as a Farmer Field School (FFS) facilitator and a member of the Ekperi Community Nursery Group of Edo State, Nigeria. This is his story in his own words:
The local government introduced a cocoa nursery to the informal group of farmers I belonged to at the time. Initially we faced many challenges due to our inexperience in nursery management. For instance, non-germination or late sprouting of the cocoa seeds and the problem of insect pests were prominent. With pods from the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria [CRIN], STCP-Nigeria in 2006, introduced the Community Based Nursery Scheme [CBNS] to us to help us establish and manage the cocoa nursery on our own. They also provided us with some materials like wheelbarrows and shovels to support our efforts. We also levied ourselves to build a well for water.
The training helped us to learn many new things including planting and watering timing, correct planting positioning, knowing the depth of planting, insect pest control management, and how to manage chemicals to avoid sickness. We are now in a position to establish and manage cocoa nurseries on our own and run it on a commercial basis to make money. We now offer technical advice on how to establish and maintain cocoa nurseries to other farmers for a small fee.
We also sell our seedlings and use the money to send our children to school. One of our members, Madam Patricia, who was not a cocoa farmer, sold her own share of the seedlings last year. Because of the gain she made, she has started planting cocoa. In all, we are now self sufficient in seedlings production and do not rely on external public services. Our current nursery is the only cocoa nursery in the whole of Edo State. At home, I apply my knowledge and management skills acquired during the FFS to organize my family well. I now appreciate what my wife and children say. I listen to them more than before, and I facilitate family discussions instead of instruct. To sum up in Yoruba “Koda, eto yi ti mu ilosiwaju ba emi ati awon awon ara aba mi gidigidi” meaning “this program has brought a lot of development to me and the members of my community.”
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-Nigeria for contributing this story.
Southeast Asia: Johnny Silva - Profile of an Innovative Cocoa Farmer
Johnny and Joy Silva are cocoa and fruit farmers in Davao, the Philippines. We first met the Silva family in November 2007 when WCF staff member Tracey Duffey visited their farm.
Today, Mr. Silva, a participant in the SUCCESS Alliance Program, has further diversified the farm by planting vegetables. The vegetables will improve food security for his family while also serving as a source of extra income. He is interested in helping his neighbors as well as contributing to research that will impact farmers throughout the Philippines. Working with his training facilitator and the Cocoa Foundation of the Philippines Inc. (CocoaPhil) field technician, Mr. Silva identified high performing trees on his farm. These trees have been designated “JS 001” (meaning Johnny Silva selection 1) and were selected for further study. The data collected will be shared with the cocoa breeding program at the University of Southern Mindinao.
Mr. Silva is propagating seedlings for use on his own farm and to help neighboring farmers with new planting. Recently, he began participating in a research study to test the effectiveness of using trichocards to trap cocoa pod borer. He looks forward to improving his fermentation boxes and building a solar dryer.
SUCCESS Alliance Philippines is supported by the US Department of Agriculture, US Agency for International Development, World Cocoa Foundation, Mars Incorporated, ACDI/VOCA, the CocoaPhil and various local organizations.
WCF thanks the CocoaPhil for contributing this story.
Cocoa Basics: What is Black Pod?
Black pod or Phytophthora pod rot is the most damaging fungal disease affecting cacao production worldwide. Phytophthora palmivora is distributed most widely on cacao, while P. megakarya is confined to several countries of West Africa, and P. capsici is limited to South America, Central America and the West Indies.
The major economic loss is from infection of the pod that can lead to annual losses estimated at 30% of potential yield, which is over 800,000 metric tons, worth over $ 1 billion (US) [See Cacao Disease Symposium, 2006]. Pods can be infected at any age, but most significant economic loss arises from infection during the two months prior to ripening. Pods infected at this stage can be a total loss because the fungus can easily pass from the pod husk to destroy the beans in a developing green pod.
Symptoms of infection include the appearance of small spots on pod surfaces, which darken and expand rapidly, often destroying entire pods. Phytophthora megakarya produces masses of sporangia, the reproductive spores of the fungus, on the pod surface. The sporangia produce motile zoospores. These spores infect pods or other tissues such as the trunk, producing cankers; or the roots, causing root rot of cacao trees. Loss of entire trees can also occur with these two latter types of infection.
Black pod is difficult to control. Phytophthora spores survive in piles of pod husks and also in the surrounding soil. The disease is promoted by wet weather and spores are dispersed by splashing rain. Chemical control of black pod by spraying with copper fungicide is a recommended control method. In the drier areas of cacao cultivation spraying is normally not necessary. However, in wet areas copper-based fungicides are not completely effective because the chemicals are often washed off by heavy rains and applications need to be repeated. Thus, local recommendations will depend on the amount and timing of rainfall, duration of periods of high humidity, age and height of the trees, amount of shade, and type of planting material.
Cultural techniques such as shade reduction, regular harvesting and frequent weed control may reduce infection, but losses from black pod are almost inevitable if the area is subject to long periods of high humidity. Reducing the relative humidity within the tree canopy by improving air circulation, reducing shade, and pruning, can decrease infection. Dead plant material, such as diseased pods, should be removed during routine sanitary pruning. Frequent harvesting of ripe pods reduces the time for infection to spread and may reduce total economic loss. However, cultural techniques are often not implemented in the majority of farms since tree height is often between seven and ten meters.
Environmentally friendly biological methods have been used to reduce infection in conjunction with reduced chemical application. In three climatic zones in Africa, the beneficial fungus, called Trichoderma, increased flowering and pod set of cacao. Timely application of this beneficial fungus that may also include use of the above cultural methods, as well as reduced use of fungicides may prevent great losses from this most aggressive of Phytophthoras occurring in West Africa, the cacao-growing region producing the most cocoa.
Breeding cacao for a degree of resistance to the Phytophthora brings improvement, although no selections are completely immune, and breeding is a long process taking several years. Breeding programs are ongoing to improve resistance to Phytophthora, but until methods are discovered to impart a high degree of resistance in cacao, the integration of disease control measures (termed IPM), that utilizes selected components from the above cultural, biological and improved resistance strategies will be the best approach for reducing losses from black pod.
WCF thanks Dr. Robert Lumsden for contributing this story.
WCF Cocoa News
Click on the links below to read about WCF staff travel to the field and participation in events. Visit the World Cocoa Foundation blog on a regular basis for updates.
June 2008
Bill Guyton presented at the Corporate Council on Africa
July 2008
WCF Cocoa Innovations Symposium