Empowering cocoa farmers in Ivory Coast

Besides deforestation, monoculture agriculture comes with a number of problems: this agricultural system depletes the soil, is sensitive to climate change, offers low nutrient diversity and low yields, and leads to higher risks for the farmers, as their income depends on a single crop type. Assisting farmers in transforming from a monoculture system towards more diversified agricultural systems contributes to addressing the problems the world is facing today.

Currently, the majority of cocoa cooperatives solely focuses on the amount of cocoa output, which leads to environmental impact being overlooked. Diversifying farmers’ income and making farmers more resilient while combatting climate change requires strong cooperatives.

Rabo Partnerships, together with strategic partners, has been working with cocoa cooperatives in Ivory Coast for over 10 years to build strong cooperatives by making them more sustainable, transparent and professional, ultimately improving the livelihood of farmers.

The initiatives aimed at strengthening the core of cooperatives included improving governance structures, developing their financial management systems, drafting bankable business plans, and connecting cooperatives to financial institutions, thereby boosting the financial inclusion of farmers. Building on this solid foundation, cooperatives can become enablers of rural development, for example by assisting farmers in implementing regenerative farming practises that improve soil health, achieve higher yields and limit deforestation.

Agroforestry fits this ambition: From an environmental standpoint, it helps to reduce agriculture’s contribution and vulnerability to climate change, while also improving soil health and yield. Furthermore, it supports afforestation and can significantly increase carbon sequestration. In terms of economic wellbeing, agroforestry can increase and diversify farmers’ incomes, making them more shock resilient; granting them access to more diverse and nutritious food.

The problem with diversification programs such as agroforestry is the high cost of initial investment. Farmers who want to make the change need financial support during the transition phase. Intercropping can offer an interesting solution to compensate the lost income of the initial transition phase.

Rabobank, Yara and De Heus are working on a pilot project in Ivory Coast that will increase maize yields and diversify farmers’ income. For De Heus, the program is attractive because the company is building a new factory in Ivory Coast with a capacity of 120.000 tons of feed that requires maize for its production. The pilot project is set up with 4 farmer cooperatives, where participating farmers receive high quality maize seeds and inputs and are guaranteed a reliable market based on a minimum offtake price. This way, cocoa farmers can benefit from the additional income source and work on diversifying their business. Since further increasing income from cocoa production alone is not possible, this is farmers’ best option to improve their income. Besides, intercropping also improves soil quality and can assist farmers move to an agroforestry system in the future. As an added bonus, the project also promotes gender equality within the cooperatives, and a majority of the participants are women.

Rabo Partnerships is involved in securing the sourcing of the maize, enabling farmers from Ivory Coast to supply De Heus domestically, thereby improving the economy of the country and reducing the need for imports. The fixed contract also means farmers don’t need to face the challenge of unreliable off takers, which has been identified as a problem in the past. The first contracts have already been signed and with over 100 farmers on board, everything is set for a swift kick-off and implementation in the coming months.