Entry: Joseph Anikwe, Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria

The Norman E. Borlaug International Agricultural Science & Technology Fellowship Program’s Global Cocoa Initiative is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and implemented in partnership with the World Cocoa Foundation.

My name is Joseph Anikwe, and I was a USDA Cocoa Borlaug Fellow in 2008. I was invited to present a paper at the recently concluded 64th Pennsylvania Manufacturing Confectioners Association (PMCA) Annual Production Conference which was held from April 26 to 28, 2010. I presented a paper titled ‘A Visit to a Cocoa-Growing Community in Nigeria’. The presentation, studded with video clips and pictures, took the audience on a virtual visit to Iloro-Idanre, a cocoa-growing community in Nigeria. I described the culture and daily lives of cocoa-growing families both in the farm and in the communities in which they live, as well as the challenges confronting cocoa farmers across West Africa.

The presentation highlighted the community at a glance, starting with the narrow road leading to Iloro-Idanre and also showing how the farmers construct their houses with rectangular concrete slabs in front to allow for easy drying of their cocoa beans. Cocoa growing is the main economic activity of the rural dwellers in Iloro-Idanre. However, cocoa is cultivated with other food crops, and these food crops come handy during the cocoa off-season periods. Most farmers own motor bikes with which they transport themselves and family members, while agricultural products such as cocoa beans are transported to the cities with trucks. The meals from the community are always garnished with bush meat caught by traps set in the farms by farmers. Medical care is available at a government health care centre in a neighbouring village called Ita-Olorun Idanre while visiting health workers give inoculations to children. Elementary school for the children of these cocoa farmers is located about a mile away from Iloro-Idanre. Men in the village enjoy drinking a local beer called palm wine which is obtained from the palm tree. They are found in groups playing the local game called Ayo in the evenings. A major festival celebrated by the people of Iloro-Idanre is the annual new yam festival.

The lifestyle of the people of Iloro-Idanre is strongly tied to their occupation, which is simply farming. In the presentation, I described how cocoa beans are planted in the nursery and nurtured in the field up until harvesting. Thereafter, post-harvest handling issues were described. I noted that the cocoa farmers from this community have benefited from the Farmer Field School (FFS) training programmes and these have imparted on their knowledge of good agricultural practice. Therefore, these farmers know the right time to harvest their cocoa pods, adhere to proper fermentation procedures and proper drying of their cocoa beans. These training programmes were first supported by USAID, the World Cocoa Foundation and industry. Today that support has expanded to include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the federal and state governments of Nigeria, and individual communities. This is aimed at improved farm management with lower crop losses and costs. However, the inaccessible road network, poor standard of living, lack of infrastructural development and lack of improved planting materials, as well as the prohibitive cost of farm inputs have remained daunting challenges to increased cocoa productivity.

Entry: Joseph Anikwe, Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria

One integral part of the programmes slated for the PMCA Conference was the Student Outreach Programme. I joined my colleague Samuel Orisajo, who is currently a Cocoa Borlaug Fellow, as well as 27 other students from selected universities across the United States for this outreach programme. It was indeed a forum for interactions and exchange of ideas among students in this year’s programme. The student outreach programme reached its peak with a facility tour of Mars Snackfood in Elizabethtown on April 26, 2010. It was a highly informative experience. The student outreach ended with an interactive session between students and their mentors alongside a farewell lunch.

Joseph Anikwe and Samuel Orisajo at the Mars facility in Elizabethtown.

The World Cocoa Foundation also facilitated a visit to some member companies in Pennsylvania and New Jersey for us. The companies visited included: The Hershey Company, Barry Callebaut and Camden International Commodities Terminal. The processes involved from ‘bean to bar’ were practically seen. The interactions, ideas shared and questions raised will go a long way in charting a new course of research for the two of us when we return to our home country. I wish to use this medium to express my profound gratitude to the World Cocoa Foundation for organizing this trip. Thank you.

Entry: Holly Houston, World Cocoa Foundation

Last week, I had the opportunity to travel to Ghana to meet with several of our partners in the Cocoa Livelihoods Program (CLP). During the first part of the trip, I traveled to the Ashanti region with the CLP Program Director, Mbalo Ndiaye and several agricultural researchers from the University of Arkansas who are working on a CLP study of environmental impact of improved cocoa production. We visited the CLP community of Amomorso, in the newly formed Bosome-Freho District, where about 95% of the working population is comprised of cocoa farmers.

Following a well-worn footpath into the cocoa farm, we were able to observe a farmer training school that meets once every 2 weeks in a clearing of the farm from March to December. The group of about 40 farmers had studied three different tree plots on the farm and created posters of their findings, including moisture of the soil, number of healthy versus diseased pods, distance between trees, and insects in the area. Each group chose a representative to present their findings to the larger group and a question and answer period followed. The discussion was led by a local facilitator who was chosen from the community to be trained by CLP-partner the Sustainable Tree Crops Program. The facilitator takes instruction and knowledge back to his or her community.

During the group session, the facilitator asked the farmers what they had learned from comparing higher-producing trees with lower-producing ones, and farmers were eager to share their opinions and own experiences. A noteworthy observation was the level of participation by women cocoa farmers who made up about 40% of the group and were some of the most vocal.

Our group posed several questions to the farmers including how many had purchased fertilizer and/or fungicide in the past year – only a handful raised their hands. Also, we passed a newly-constructed local bank in the neighboring community and asked if any were participating in banking services. A few members stated they had been approached to start a savings account – a few had expressed interest. To move beyond core production training skills, the Cocoa Livelihoods Program will work to train these farmers in business skills to view and manage their farms as a business – including keeping records, analyzing the costs and benefits of inputs, establishing a need for use of banking services, and improving access to credit.

We look forward to working with communities like Amomorso and seeing the impact of improving livelihoods of cocoa farmers across Ghana and other CLP countries.

Guest Entry: Dr. Lawton Lanier Nalley (Agricultural Economist), Mansoor Leh (Agricultural Engineer), and Eric Cummings (Agricultural Engineer), University of Arkansas

We had the opportunity to travel to Ghana from Monday May, 24 to Wednesday, June 1 as part of our environmental impact assessment for the World Cocoa Foundation Cocoa Livelihoods Program (CLP). Our travel and agenda were facilitated by the CLP Program Director Mbalo Ndiaye. While in country, we were able to meet with government, industry, and research entities to discuss our collection of data related to cocoa production in West Africa. The majority of our time was spent in Accra meeting with different agencies and individuals. We were also able to make two site visits to see firsthand cocoa production and research. The first visit took us to the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) in Tafo. For the second site visit, we traveled to the Ashanti region to visit a CLP Farmer Field School in the community of Amomorso.

Farmer Field School Class members meeting in an Amomorso cocoa farm

During our time in Accra, we met with many individuals and entities that had information which will be instrumental to the environmental impact assessment portion of CLP. These included meetings with the Ghana Cocoa Board, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture/Sustainable Tree Crops Program (IITA/STCP), Ghana EPA, the Water Resources Commission, the Water Research Institute, the International Water Management Institute, the University of Ghana Center for Remote Sensing and GIS, Cadbury Ghana, Weinco, and the Tema port facilities.

Our trip to CRIG included meetings with multiple researchers with different specialties to give a holistic view of cocoa production. We discussed different production practices, inputs, and cocoa varieties associated with cocoa production in Ghana. The visit also included a tour of the varietal trials and seedling nursery located on the CRIG experiment station.

Our farm visit to the community of Amomorso presented us with the opportunity to not only document some of the cocoa production practices, but to also experience the on-the-ground efforts of the World Cocoa Foundation CLP training. The attentiveness of the farmers to the CLP trainers was pleasant to see.

Dr. Lanier discussing farming inputs with Farmer Field School members

We look forward to continuing our work with CLP and hope we have the opportunity to visit Ghana again in the future.