Cocoa agroforestry in West & Central Africa

1. Transforming Lives and Landscapes with Trees
Cocoa agroforestry: A viable practice
for Cocoa landscape rehabilitation in
West & Central Africa
Christophe Kouamé, Alain Atangana and Lucien Diby
World Agroforestry, West and Central Africa Regional Office

2. Transforming Lives and Landscapes with Trees
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Outline of the talk
• Importance of cocoa in West and Central Africa (WCA)
• Historical perspective of cocoa in WCA
• Challenges for cocoa production in WCA
• Agroforestry to mitigate the current cocoa production
challenges
• Key success factors for scaling-up cocoa agroforestry in
WCA
• Conclusion

3. Transforming Lives and Landscapes with Trees
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Importance of cocoa in West & Central Africa
• WCA is world’s
top producer of
cocoa beans
https://chocolateclass.wordpress.com/tag/ivory-coast/
• Ivory Coast and
Ghana produce
over 60% world
cocoa

4. Transforming Lives and Landscapes with Trees
Cote d’Ivoire
• Driving force of the economy
• 15% of the country GDP and
39% of exports in Cote d’Ivoire
• Cocoa industry employs
over 1 million farm families
• Provide livelihoods to 28% of
the population
Importance of cocoa in WCA

5. Transforming Lives and Landscapes with Trees
Economic
Issues
• Low farmer
income
• Inability to invest
in farms/coops
• No new planting
material/ aging
trees
• Limited use of
fertilizer and
pesticides
• No quality
incentives
• Declining cocoa
yields and
quality
Environmental
Issues
• Deforestation
• Loss of
biodiversity
• Exposure to pests
and disease
• No more new land
available
• Declining soil
fertility
• Declining cocoa
yields and
quality
Social Issue
• Low availability of
social services
• Farmers lack
access to health
care; many can’t
afford school fees
• Declining interest
in cocoa farming;
increased
migration to cities
• Loss of human
capacity for
farming
• Food and nutrition
insecurity
• Declining cocoa
yields and
quality
Source: www.fsg.org
Cacao production challenges

6. Transforming Lives and Landscapes with Trees
• Cocoa Agroforestry not new in WCA
• When introduced in WCA, cocoa was produced in AF systems
until late 1970’s (for CI).
• Full sun monocropping practices were promoted from then with
the creation of new hybrids requiring more sun and fertilizer for
intensification.
• We have seen the limitations of these practices.
Historical perspective of cocoa Agoforestry in
West & Central Africa

7. Transforming Lives and Landscapes with Trees
Challenges of cocoa production in WCA
CSSVD: Cocoa Swollen shoot virus disease Deforestation: Perception of farmers on the
effects of deforestation and climate variability
(Kouame et al. 2017)
9
46.23
72.02
89.78
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Loss of morals, aesthetics, cultural landscape
and heritage values
Increased health problems
Lower revenues as a result of reduced
diversification
Reduction of food production
Freaquency (%)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-24/ghana-s-
main-cocoa-harvest-drops-to-3-year-low-on-disease
Ghana’s Main Cocoa Harvest Drops
to 3-Year Low on Disease

8. Transforming Lives and Landscapes with Trees
Agroforestry for sustainable cocoa production
Research evidence of multiple benefits of cocoa-
agroforestry systems for resilient farmer incomes, food
and nutrition security and sustainable cocoa landscapes
Cutting out of CSSVD infected farms
Studies in Ghana in 1990s (Vaast pers. comm.)
reported 5m vegetative barrier strips around
cocoa fields prevented the spread of CSSVD

9. Transforming Lives and Landscapes with Trees
• Farmer perception “Why do you
want to plant trees in your cacao farm?”
• Cacao
• Revenue
• Food
• 95% farmers are willing to
integrated high value trees in
their cocoa farms (Smith et al, 2014)
Agroforestry to mitigate the current cocoa
production / profitability challenges in WCA
Allegra et al. 2014

10. Transforming Lives and Landscapes with Trees
•Innovation
•Farmers and Extension
service
•Market and added value
•Policy framework
Key success factors for scaling-up cocoa
Agroforestry in West & Central Africa

11. Transforming Lives and Landscapes with Trees
• Access to appropriate planting
material of cocoa and other
crops
• Access to AF technologies
• Research on
• Domestication/selection of new
AF species compatible with cocoa
• Business model of cocoa
agroforestry
Key success factors for scaling-up cocoa
AgroForestry in West & Central Africa
Innovation

12. Transforming Lives and Landscapes with Trees
• Strengthen Technical
capacity
• Support Extension service to
transfer innovations to
farmers
• Local knowledge (manures,
social organization,
Innovation platforms)
Key success factors for scaling-up cocoa
AgroForestry in West & Central Africa
Skills of Farmers and Extension service

13. Transforming Lives and Landscapes with Trees
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Key success factors for scaling-up cocoa
AgroForestry in West & Central Africa
Market and added value
• Value creation: Farmers to move from
selling dry beans to selling more
process products for more added
value
• Promote market of AF tree products
products (e.g. fruits, nuts, spices, milk)
from the trees/crops; livestock in the
diversified cocoa system

14. Transforming Lives and Landscapes with Trees
• Infrastructure
• Road
• Community infrastructure (School,
health center, water, …
• Enable Rural entrepreneurship
for youth
Key success factors for scaling-up cocoa
AgroForestry in West & Central Africa
Policy framework
• Land tenure
• Tree tenure
• Access to finance (loans,
subsidies for farmers) to
regenerate theirs farms

15. Transforming Lives and Landscapes with Trees
World Agroforestry (ICRAF),
United Nations Avenue, Gigiri,
P.O Box 30677-00100, Nairobi, Kenya
Phone: +254 20 722 4000
Fax: +254 20 722 4001
Email: icraf@cigar.org
Website: www.worldagroforestry.org
Thank you!
c.kouame@cigar.org
ICRAF West and Central Africa