Responsibly farmed cocoa

Our approach: promotion of agroforestry

Many cocoa farms are planted as monocultures, in the form of large fields on which only cocoa trees are planted. Under these conditions, the plants are less resistant to diseases, pests, and climatic changes. What’s more, the shade-loving cocoa plants are exposed to the blazing sun and therefore require a lot of water. This type of farming is unnatural. Monoculture farming erodes the soil. A large amount of fertilizers and pesticides, as well as a lot of water, is required for generating high yields.

As forested areas have been destroyed by logging, additional trees are felled as firewood and timber –often unsustainably. The result: This conventional farming method damages the environment and does not lead to good yields. If a cocoa farm has bad harvests, neighboring forests are logged to make way for more land for cultivation so that more cocoa can be harvested.

Our approach: equal rights for women on cocoa farms

We promote awareness of the fact that men and women are equal and should therefore receive equal pay and equal access to education. A further aspect of emancipation is earnings opportunities: If they are given the relevant knowledge, female cocoa farmers can save money and apply for loans collectively. This is done via Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLA), a type of savings and loan association consisting of a group of 15 to 30 people, mostly women, who want to work together and pool their savings.

With the help of knowledge, community spirit and loans, they can then unleash their entrepreneurial potential and implement their own plans, such as starting a vegetable-growing cooperative. The additional income improves the socio-economic status of women and the standard of living of their families. Moreover, diversification in the crops grown – in Africa examples of these are bananas, corn, cassava, papaya, and pineapple – opens up additional sources of income and helps to improve food security. And additional income enables more children to go to school while reducing exploitative child labor.

We know that women’s income and education levels have a direct impact on their children’s health and education. Therefore, promoting women’s entrepreneurial skills and creating income-generating opportunities is also essential for supporting their children’s education, improving local development and reducing exploitative child labor.

The challenge: the economic dependence of women

Women who work on cocoa farms are often financially disadvantaged, unable to independently earn enough money while being the ones responsible for most domestic work and childcare. Therefore, they are usually financially dependent on their husbands. Furthermore, access to education can be more difficult for women, leading to fewer opportunities compared to men. If women manage farms themselves, they often lack sufficient support. Women’s incomes and educational status have a direct impact on the health and education of their children and family members.

Our approach: clarification and monitoring for better child welfare

We identify and reduce every type of child labor which has been categorized as illegal by international and national law. The instrument used for this is the Child Labor Monitoring and Remediation System (CLMRS). This is a system for protecting children and for monitoring and eliminating child labor in the supply chain.

The first step is a risk analysis in households and communities – farmers are interviewed about the work their children do. After that, customized measures are developed to improve the situation. Child protection officers are appointed and trained in the villages to implement the CLMRS on-site. If children have been made to do illegal work, they are pulled out of these activities. This can only succeed if farmers can avoid using free child labor. A key part of this is knowledge transfer about efficient working and cultivation methods of the cocoa commitment program. The children freed from illegal child labor are also given the opportunity to go to school.

This may require building schools or using higher incomes and savings programs to pay for tuition. This enables children to receive a good education and earn their own living later on.

The problem: exploitative child labor

Illegal and exploitative child labor continues to be a widespread problem in the cocoa supply change, which can be traced back to dire poverty and ignorance – many people do not recognize where the boundary between “helping out a little bit on the farm after school” and “illegal child labor” becomes blurred.

School children are primarily used during the main harvest season as full-time workers, including in dangerous activities such as handling pesticides or machetes, for climbing trees, on night shifts, without pay, without protective clothing and equipment and sometimes in slavery-like conditions through forced labor assignments on faraway farms. As a result, they cannot go to school – parents often have no money to pay for schooling anyway – and the children’s physical and mental development is impeded.

Our approach: participation in the sustainability program

By participating in the cocoa commitment sustainability program, farmers and cooperatives receive access to knowledge, so they can reduce costs and increase income from and quality on their farms. The reward is significantly higher revenues, creating financial scope for a better standard of living and further investment.

The challenge: low incomes for farmers and cooperatives

Cocoa is grown on large and small farms and marketed through large cooperatives. Entire villages are dependent on cocoa farming. If farm management skills and the knowledge of modern farming practices are underdeveloped, profits may be at risk: This is because the production costs are too high and the yields and quality are not sufficient.

Our approach: reforestation of barren land

As part of the cocoa commitment, barren areas of land outside of national parks and agricultural areas are reforested, which also restores regional flora and fauna to land outside of conservation areas. In the past, significant deforestation has occurred in the affected regions.

During reforestation, native trees and plants are chosen that grow in the local virgin forests and are “climate smart,” i.e. robust enough in case of climate change. For example, 11,000 native trees might be planted on a ten-hectare area and monitored for three years. To ensure that the new forest is not cleared again, the communities receive Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES), which are payments tied to environmental projects, such as the establishment of plant nurseries in cooperation with women’s associations in the community or programs for distributing cooking stoves, which save firewood from being burned.

The challenge: barren acreage

When a cleared forest area is depleted by monoculture cocoa cultivation, another piece of forest is then cleared for cocoa cultivation – sometimes illegally in nature reserves. The now barren acreage is abandoned. However, the soil is so infertile that no natural virgin forest can regrow on it, only scrubby undergrowth lacking biodiversity.

Our approach: Climate Smart Cocoa

What can be done in a dry growing region to better retain water from the rainy season in the soil and prevent evaporation for protection during droughts? How can soil erosion and the spread of fungal diseases be reduced in regions that experience heavy rainfall? How and when should cocoa trees be pruned, depending on a particularly dry or wet growing season? Which alternative varieties of cocoa plants are suitable for changed climate conditions? Which technical aides can be used? How can a farm’s carbon footprint be reduced?

Each region and cooperative requires its own Climate Smart Cocoa (CSC) strategies, which they learn about through projects and training sessions. The objectives are to improve productivity while simultaneously building resilience to climate change scenarios and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The challenge: insufficient adaptation to climate change and weather fluctuations

Particularly wet or dry years endanger cocoa yields and incomes. Farms and cooperatives often lack the knowledge to adapt to weather and climate phenomena over both the short and long term. The consequences can be immediate, or there might be long-term crop failures due to periods of drought or heavy rainfall which threaten farmers’ livelihoods. Some growing regions may well lose their suitability for cocoa cultivation altogether in the coming decades.

Our approach: mapping farmland

Farmers who want to become part of cocoa commitment have to ensure that none of their farming areas are situated in nature reserves and that they do not engage in further deforestation. This is checked using polygonal mappings, as follows: The cooperatives map the farmers’ farmland using GPS data. In a supply chain mapping tool, this data is used to carry out inspections to confirm that farms are not located in protected areas and that the farmers will not cut down any forests in the future.

Does the farm border a nature reserve? If so, satellite photos show whether the farm boundary is correctly indicated or if there has been falsification of the mapping. Is the amount harvested remarkably high for the cultivated area? Then satellite photos and an on-site visit are used to determine whether illegal farming areas are being used. However, the system is not based on checks alone: It is also about solutions for farmers. For farms located near conservation areas, farm management plans are created to prevent farming from encroaching on the forest. cocoa commitment-certified cocoa thus comes from deforestation-free farms.

The challenge: illegal logging, which is hard to detect

The clearing of forested areas for new acreage for cocoa cultivation has been common practice for decades. Although countries combat this by designating protected areas, violations are almost impossible to detect.

Our approach: agroforestry and Good Agricultural Practice (GAP)

Monocultures are avoidable, as the alternatives deliver higher overall incomes over the long term: Diversified agroforestry combined with Good Agricultural Practice (GAP). On cocoa farms, this means the use of suitable plant varieties, the correct use of shading by additional trees, the maintenance and improvement of soil fertility by natural means, environmentally friendly weed and pest control, and restorative post-harvest practices. Mixed cultivation with other crops, such as bananas, papaya, or cassava provide additional income, complemented by sustainably planted trees for timber.

As a result, it is not necessary to create new fields or cut down trees in adjacent areas for timber. The implementation of these practices is achieved through developing knowledge and knowledge transfer in the communities and on the farms, regarding issues such as: How can the existing cocoa trees be rejuvenated? Which seedlings should be chosen? How do cocoa trees have to be pruned? Which crops thrive particularly well and which additional functions do they have, for example, do they provide shade or improve the soil?

The challenge: deforestation in virgin forests and rainforests

The most profitable type of cocoa farming over the short term is a monoculture on freshly cleared virgin or rainforest land. This is extremely damaging to the environment: Biodiversity is lost, a lot of fertilizers and chemical pesticides have to be used, and at some point the soil is depleted, which leads to the clearing of further forested areas.

The wood logged during this process is in high demand as it can be used as free firewood or sold as valuable high-quality timber. Monocultures have been the default practice for decades, and any knowledge of better alternatives is often lacking. Another disadvantage of this way of farming is that the farm relies on a single source of income. If the harvest fails, these monoculture plants drastically reduce the farm’s income.

Our approach: teaching financial knowledge

By teaching farmers about invoicing, accounting, and the use of growing diaries, they learn how to run their small business in a more professional manner. This avoids making bad investments, and at the same time the results of converting to agroforestry are made visible – not only through cocoa revenues, but also by the overall income of the farm in the form of vegetable crops, wood, and the savings made on pesticides. In this way, farmers identify that farm incomes can be significantly increased using existing farmland.

The challenge: low level of financial knowledge

By teaching farmers about invoicing, accounting, and the use of growing diaries, they learn how to run their small business in a more professional manner. This avoids making bad investments, and at the same time the results of converting to agroforestry are made visible – not only through cocoa revenues, but also by the overall income of the farm in the form of vegetable crops, wood, and the savings made on pesticides. In this way, farmers identify that farm incomes can be significantly increased using existing farmland.

Our approach: more knowledge about pest control and fertilizing

amounts of chemical pesticides, natural methods are often the better choice. This is beneficial to ecosystems and biodiversity, and the quality of the cocoa also improves. Nitrogen-fixing plants, such as banana plants or mahogany trees, help improve the soil and protect from weeds, while at the same time providing shade. Mulch made from cocoa pods, which are in abundance on the farm anyway, is also an excellent soil improver.

The challenge: incorrect use of pesticides and fertilizers

Sometimes, environmentally damaging and even incorrect pesticides and fertilizers are used, and in large amounts, due to both insufficient knowledge and a lack of access to organic pest control and fertilization methods. However, this approach is expensive and eats into profits. At the same time, ecosystems are heavily polluted, and the health of those using the pesticides is negatively affected. Due to financial burdens, it is often difficult to earn a living wage, with the only way out commonly being illegal logging, the land then being planted with a monoculture once more – damaging important ecosystems and reducing biodiversity.

The challenge: low yield despite overexploitation

Each small farm, even if it only manages a few hectares, is a business. However, people often live hand to mouth here, instead of running their farms with modern management methods. If cocoa revenue decreases, this is not assigned to its actual causes, and the cost of pesticides and fertilizer is not offset by income. This often results in cocoa farming no longer being financially viable.

Our approach: promotion of agroforestry

Many cocoa farms are planted as monocultures, in the form of large fields on which only cocoa trees are planted. Under these conditions, the plants are less resistant to diseases, pests, and climatic changes. What’s more, the shade-loving cocoa plants are exposed to the blazing sun and therefore require a lot of water. This type of farming is unnatural. Monoculture farming erodes the soil. A large amount of fertilizers and pesticides, as well as a lot of water, is required for generating high yields.

As forested areas have been destroyed by logging, additional trees are felled as firewood and timber –often unsustainably. The result: This conventional farming method damages the environment and does not lead to good yields. If a cocoa farm has bad harvests, neighboring forests are logged to make way for more land for cultivation so that more cocoa can be harvested.

In the projects and during the training courses, the cocoa farmers acquire up-to-date knowledge about how environmentally friendly pest control works and how to perfect fertilization methods. Instead of the expensive use of large amounts of chemical pesticides, natural methods are often the better choice. This is beneficial to ecosystems and biodiversity, and the quality of the cocoa also improves. Nitrogen-fixing plants, such as banana plants or mahogany trees, help improve the soil and protect from weeds, while at the same time providing shade. Mulch made from cocoa pods, which are in abundance on the farm anyway, is also an excellent soil improver.

amounts of chemical pesticides, natural methods are often the better choice. This is beneficial to ecosystems and biodiversity, and the quality of the cocoa also improves. Nitrogen-fixing plants, such as banana plants or mahogany trees, help improve the soil and protect from weeds, while at the same time providing shade. Mulch made from cocoa pods, which are in abundance on the farm anyway, is also an excellent soil improver.