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Cameroon: Farmers Trained on Cocoa Cultivation Practices

Entry: Bill Guyton

Please see below an article written by Lukong Pius Nyuylime of All Africa Press. World Cocoa Foundation is pleased to be a major funder of the Sustainable Tree Crops Program (STCP) in partnership with the U.S. Agency for International Development. I had the opportunity to visit some of the farmer field schools in Cameroon a couple of years ago (please see my earlier blogs). The program in Cameroon, under Jonas Mva Mva's leadership, has been progressing well. We commend the Government of Cameroon for support of sustainble cocoa in the country.


Cameroon: Farmers Trained on Cocoa Cultivation Practices
Lukong Pius Nyuylime
29 June 2009

The 38 agricultural Extension Workers were trained recently in the Centre Region by IITA experts.

Against the backdrop of growing concern over low supply of young cocoa plants compared to increasing demand, experts of the Sustainable Tree Crop Program (STCP) of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) recently provided new skills to farmers in the Centre Region for the cultivation of cocoa in order to increase yield and farmers' income.

Drawn from seven cooperatives and other agricultural associations as well as the administration, the farmers received lessons on basic techniques of intensifying cocoa farms through the Farmer Learning Group Approach conceived within the framework of the STCP. The concept of cocoa intensification according to one of the experts, Richard Asare, an expert in tree diversification from IITA, Ghana, involves basically training farmers to apply best agricultural practices, notably rational use of fertilizer, pesticide, insecticides, planting of hybrid cocoa material, tree diversification, etc in cocoa cultivation for economic and environmental sustainability.

The Farmer Learning Group is a structured group base approach designed to teach farmers specific skills and practices on planting, replanting and diversification in cocoa establishment using demonstrations, field observations, field exercises and discussions as key training and learning tools. "Farmers need to be made more professional so as to raise their level of income and at the same time maintain and sustain the ecosystem on which their activities depend", Jonas Mva Mva, Country Manager for STCP-Cameroon said during the training.

"Seed production and multiplication farms are able to supply only 30 per cent of the young cocoa plants demanded by farmers for planting", Emerant Evenga, Agriculture Extension Worker and Deputy Communication Officer for the country's Ministry of Agriculture said, stating that annual demand for young cocoa plants is presently estimated at 80 million.

"Since supply cannot meet demand, it is important to train farmers on how to improve yields from existing farms", he said underscoring that one of the most important ways is to rationalize the use of fertilizer and pesticides.

Poor use of these products is partly responsible for low production, Evenga said. A hectare of land in Cameroon today produces between 200 and 500 kilograms of beans which is far below standard production of between 700 kilograms and 1.5 tons a hectare.

| Posted On June 30, 2009 Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

ECHOES New Intern

Entry by David Noyes

Greetings! My name is David Noyes and I am just starting here at the World Cocoa Foundation as the new Education Intern, working with Charlie Feezel on the ECHOES program. I recently returned to the US after working for two years in Burkina Faso as a secondary education Peace Corps volunteer. In Burkina, I taught math, physics, and chemistry at one of the largest public high schools in the country. While there I did a lot of work on introducing technology-based teaching methods at my school. We did this through the construction of an Internet café at the school, the installation of a video projector in a teaching laboratory, and teacher training on how to find resources online and how to use the relevant software to incorporate these resources into lessons in the classroom. This allowed teachers to show things such as animations of blood flow through the heart and simulations of physics and chemistry experiments when previously their only teaching resources were chalk and a chalkboard.

Working at the World Cocoa Foundation with the ECHOES program is a very exciting opportunity as it gives me the chance to work on a project that seeks to improve the quality and relevance of education in rural West Africa. As a teacher in West Africa, I often saw my students struggle with lessons that seemed far removed from anything they encountered in their day-to-day lives. Students were often left with the impression that math and science was something you learned about at school, but that had little relevance outside the classroom. The ECHOES program addresses these kinds of issues by helping to make education more relevant and applicable to the lives of youth in their communities.

I am already very impressed by the great work that World Cocoa Foundation and its partners are doing, which I got a great introduction to while helping out at the recent partnership meeting. I look forward to making my own contribution while working on ECHOES!

| Posted On June 16, 2009 Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Cocoa Farmers in Nigeria

Entry: Bill Guyton

I wanted to share an article written by reporter Olukayode Oyeleye (see below). We at the World Cocoa Foundation congratulate our colleagues in Ondo and Cross River States for their interest and on-going support of farmer field schools. Through programs like STCP (co-funded by USAID and World Cocao Foundation members) and the Cocoa Livelihoods Program (co-funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and 11 leading chocolate companies), we are helping thousands of cocoa farmers in Nigeria improve yields, incomes and marketing practices. These and other efforts have received the active support of local government and community groups in the cocoa growing areas of Nigeria.

Beyond Field School, Cocoa Farmers Now Have More Money For Higher Values
By Olukayode Oyeleye

The penultimate Friday meeting of the national steering committee of the Sustainable Tree Crop Programme (STCP), held in Akure, threw up a number of things that need to engage the minds of all that are serious about transforming agriculture in Nigeria in general and cocoa business in particular.

Following Akin Oluwalade's presentation, it became clear that the Farmers' Field School that started, according to Mr. Ejide Aladesaiye, "like a child's play," and "has been adopted by Ondo State as an extension methodology," has now become a bride of the federal government. Oluwalade told participants at the meeting that "an expansion of the scheme is being proposed by the federal Ministry of Agriculture."

At the meeting, where the third year's semi-annual progress report was given, covering the period between last year's October and March this year, Oluwalade recalled the efforts of STCP-Nigeria to promote the uptake of the community-based nursery scheme by individuals, farmers' groups and communities. He said "about 66,000 seedlings are being raised. "We are trying to measure the impact of the FFS in Ondo and Cross River states, Oluwalade stated.

Many other key issues came out of the report. One of them was the study visit conducted by some members of the steering committee to Edo, Abia and Cross River states earlier in the year to observe the nurseries initiatives and how far and well they have fared.

Another was the three-day training workshop on monitoring and evaluation system, organised by STCP-Nigeria in collaboration with the National Cocoa Development Committee (NCDC) for cocoa desk officers and managers of Agricultural Development Programmes from the 14 cocoa-producing states of the country. It was described as a step towards consolidating the integration of the FFS into the national extension delivery system.

The support given to three cooperatives in the collective trading efforts during the last training campaign ending in February also came under focus. One of them, the Itunta High Quality Cocoa Farmers' Multipurpose Cooperative Society (IFMCS) was said to have carried out its first collective trading activity within the period.

Cyril Ugwu of SOCODEVI, a partner NGO working alongside STCP, disclosed that within the period under review, SOCODEVI and STCP facilitated the establishment of two cocoa quality testing laboratories for CRACCU and Ife Cooperative Produce Marketing Union (ICPMU)as means of assisting them have quality specification for their produce before sales.

In Ugwu's findings, "small holders, individually, don't have bargaining power, but they could (trade better) under cooperatives where they aggregate their produce and sell." He also observed, rather sadly, that many cooperative members are ageing and would soon be out of the way. For instance, he disclosed that, during their foray into Ife cooperatives to find out how to assist them, "average membership of Ife cooperative was 60 years," predicting that, without addition of young members, "the cooperative would be dead in 10 years." He also observed that their average annual production was going down by 40 per cent, asking "what happens to them in few years' time?"

STCP's Country Manager, Dr. Chris Okafor, hinted that the World Cocoa Foundation and leading chocolate industry companies, in partnership with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced a $40 million development programme to focus on improving the livelihooods of cocoa farmers in five countries in West Africa, namely: Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon and Liberia.

He disclosed that the programme, which is officially known as the Cocoa Livelihood Program (CLP) has commenced operations with preliminary activities such as planning meetings at the country and regional levels, and site selection. According to Okafor, CLP is has five technical partners that "are required to work closely together as a team in the implementation of the programme activities."

A leading cocoa farmer, David Onyenweaku, attested to a yield difference he has recorded through adoption of the skills he gathered through trainings he had received, particularly with the discretion in the use of chemicals. Henry Adesioye, a processor, lamented that majority of farmers still hold to old ways of doing things despite the trainings they have received from STCP. He said quality of cocoa still has much to be improved upon, saying without quality, the issue of asking for premium over cocoa beans does not arise.

Sam Odoemelam, general manager of Cocoa Development Unit, Abia State, blamed the quality problem on those who give farmers cash in anticipation of purchase of produce later. The arrangement, according to him, has forced farmers' hands into compromising quality in attempts to deliver on promises.

Robo Adhuze of the Cocoa Association of Nigeria observed that STCP is constrained by funds, limiting its publicity reach, a view also corroborated by Aladesaiye, the programme manager of the Ondo State Agricultural Development Programme. Aladesaiye said he would want steps to be taken to improve on publicity, and would particularly want to see sources open for the funding of such activities.

| Posted On June 16, 2009 Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

2009 Cocoa Borlaug Fellows attend Pennsylvania Manufacturing Confectioners’ Association 63rd Annual Production Conference

Entry by Rhodina B. Cena and Muhammad Junaid


Last April 27-29, 2009, together with Tracey Duffey, Rhodina B. Cena and Muhammad Junaid participated in the Pennsylvania Manufacturing Confectioners’ Association 63rd Annual Production Conference at the Hershey Lodge and Convention Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

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During the conference, we were able to meet several member companies, including confectionery manufacturers, suppliers, equipment manufacturers, and industry service organizations worldwide. The conference also featured a comprehensive half-day supplier exhibition from manufacturers and suppliers from different countries.

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The PMCA also organized a Student Outreach Program (SOP) led by committee chair, Barry Glazier where each student was assigned with a conference mentor. Rhodina’s mentor was Steve Genzoli of Ghirardelli Chocolate Company while Muhammad’s mentor was Judy Cooley of Hershey Company. We were much honored this year because the number of students has grown from 10 to 28 students representing 12 Domestic Universities and 2 International Universities (Rhodina B. Cena from the University of Southern Mindanao, Philippines and Muhammad Junaid from the University of Hassanudin, Indonesia). We also joined the exciting tour at the Warrell Corporation in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania where a lecture was given prior to visiting the plant.

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A farewell get together party was also organized by the SOP committee to give us chance to say good-bye to one another and for us to say thank you for our participation. We also visited the Hershey Story Museum where we learned more about the man behind the chocolate bar and saw the exciting interactive exhibits and hands-on activities.

Before Rhodina returned to Tifton, Georgia, the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) organized a visit to USDA-ARS Beltsville, Maryland. Rhodina and Muhammad made a presentation about their work in their home country to the USDA-ARS Beltsville Scientists and USDA Borlaug Staff. Afterwards, we went on a tour of the different laboratories. Rhodina also had the chance to meet and interact with Dr. Fernando Vega, an entomologist and other scientists involved in Muhammad Junaid's fellowship training.

Finally, on May 5, we made our final presentation concerning our fellowship training at the USDA in Washington D.C.. The Norman Borlaug Office and the USDA staff, Tracey Duffey as the World Cocao Foundation Program Director for Southeast Asia and Africa, the Agricultural Attaché and Offy Ismojo from the Embassy of Indonesia were there to listen.

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They were very happy about our accomplishments so far and subsequently, awarding of certificates was given by Marianne McElroy. We concluded this day with a radio interview with Susan Carter that was broadcasted on the USDA radio station.

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| Posted On June 15, 2009 Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

ECHOES Entrepreneurship Training

Entry by Charlie Feezel

These two posters are used by ECHOES partners in Ghana to train entrepreneurship trainers. The graduate trainers use the images to help community members to understand the cocoa value chain and chart commercial cocoa activities closer to home. In discussions of the events and the flow of goods the learners develop a deeper understanding of their business cycle and constraints and opportunities that impact their success. The entrepreneur can then create a more wholesome enterprise.

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Click on the following links to download the posters as well as the training facilitator’s guide.

| Posted On June 12, 2009 Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)