The Netherlands and some partners have committed 21 million euros ($28.6m) to the Cocoa Rehabilitation and Intensification Program (CORIP), which will help improve competitiveness in Ghana’s cocoa industry, the world’s second-largest after Cote d’Ivoire.
The program, which includes a 7 million euros ($9.5m) grant from The Netherlands and an additional 14 million euros ($14m) from private sector cocoa industry funding facilities, seeks to develop economic, social and environmentally sustainable structures for cocoa farmers in Ghana. It will benefit 40,000 farmers in six cocoa producing regions of Ghana – Ashanti, Eastern, Central, Brong Ahafo, Western North and Western South.
The farmer’s support programme will establish and operate Cocoa Rural Service Centers (RCS) which will promote and upscale production in a sustainable, self- financing way, in partnership with cocoa buyers for the next four years. The RSCs will be privately-run entities, providing training, information, inputs and other technical support for improved cocoa production.
The project will be coordinated by Solidaridad West Africa, a Dutch-based international food and energy company, in collabroation with the Cocoa Research Institute (CRI) of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), and other cocoa sector partners and industries, including International Fertiliser Development Corporation (IFDC), Armajaro, Cargill, ECOM, Barry Callebaut, ADM and Continaf; to boost availability of improved planting materials for the farmers.
In July, COCOBOD secured a $1. 2 billion syndicated loan for cocoa purchases for the present 2013/2014 crop season, with the country targeting about 850,000 metric tonnes of the chocolate beans production this season.
Ghana cocoa sector faces a number of challenges such as low productivity, low income for smallholder farmers, aging farmers, depleting soils, poor labour conditions, environment challenges as well as deforestation and climate change, says Isaac Gyamfi, Director of Solidaridad West Africa.
CORIP will help cocoa farmers implement best farming and management practices and certification standards. It will also encourage producers and other cocoa supply chain actors to implement improvedd production and sourcing practices to achieve cocoa sustainability, improve enabling environment for the production and trading of sustainable cocoa and professionalise the production practices of cocoa producers.
The program is a good example of current Dutch policy of combining trade and development cooperation, said the Netherlands Ambassador to Ghana, Hans Docter.
According to the Ambassador, the programme will help entrepreneurial farmers develop their cocoa farms into sustainable and viable business enterprises.
“It will provide necessary technical support for farmers to rehabilitate old farms and intensify existing cocoa systems. It will work with the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana and COCOBOD to boost availability of improved planting materials for the farmers.
“The program shows that public and private interests can go hand in hand to add value, without the government having to take on additional burden to increase ex.port revenue, make production more sustainable and improve farmers’ profit,” Docter said.
Cocoa is Ghana’s largest export crop and has been one of main sources of revenue generation in the economy since independence. The Netherlands on the other hand is the largest importer of cocoa from West Africa.
