Cocoa: facts worth knowing

Our approach: promotion of agroforestry

Wild cocoa trees love shady forests and intact ecosystems in which every plant plays an important role: some trees create shade, while others provide valuable fertilizer with their leaves, or their roots loosen the soil. The practice of agroforestry in “multistoried” forests similar to primeval forests, with mutually complementary native plants, has many advantages for cocoa cultivation—including surprisingly high yields. This is because it isn’t only cocoa that is successfully grown in agroforests. Other tree species provide firewood, lumber, and fruit, while vegetables and herbs can be grown using smart crop sequencing. Tree and plant cuttings serve as fertilizer. Farmers can sell these non-cocoa crops for profit or use them for their own purposes.

Because the ecosystem is intact, there are also more pollinating insects, the need for artificial fertilizers and chemical pesticides is reduced, and the healthy soil doesn’t erode and can therefore store water. All of this makes the farm as a whole more resilient against climate change. We promote the transition from cocoa monoculture to agroforestry, particularly through training sessions in the cooperatives and the annual planting of around 5,000 trees. Only farms that pledge not to acquire any additional farmland through forest clearing are accepted into the cocoa commitment sustainability program. This is monitored through visits to the farms, the use of GPS data, and other means.

The challenge: a lack of financial understanding

Every small farm, even if it comprises only a few hectares, is a business. In small-farming structures, however, the operators often live from hand to mouth rather than managing the farm using modern methods. When cocoa yields drop, this isn’t attributed to the actual causes and the costs of pesticides and fertilizer aren’t offset against revenue—with the result that cocoa cultivation often is no longer worthwhile.

Our approach: promotion of agroforestry

Wild cocoa trees love shady forests and intact ecosystems in which every plant plays an important role: some trees create shade, while others provide valuable fertilizer with their leaves, or their roots loosen the soil. The practice of agroforestry in “multistoried” forests similar to primeval forests, with mutually complementary native plants, has many advantages for cocoa cultivation—including surprisingly high yields.

This is because it isn’t only cocoa that is successfully grown in agroforests. Other tree species provide firewood, lumber, and fruit, while vegetables and herbs can be grown using smart crop sequencing. Tree and plant cuttings serve as fertilizer. Farmers can sell these non-cocoa crops for profit or use them for their own purposes. Because the ecosystem is intact, there are also more pollinating insects, the need for artificial fertilizers and chemical pesticides is reduced, and the healthy soil doesn’t erode and can therefore store water. All of this makes the farm as a whole more resilient against climate change. We promote the transition from cocoa monoculture to agroforestry, particularly through training sessions in the cooperatives and the annual planting of around 5,000 trees. Only farms that pledge not to acquire any additional farmland through forest clearing are accepted into the cocoa commitment sustainability program. This is monitored through visits to the farms, the use of GPS data, and other means.

Our approach: equal rights for women in cocoa farming

We promote awareness that men and women are equal and should therefore also receive equal pay and equal access to education. A further aspect of emancipation is income opportunity: given the relevant knowledge, wives of cocoa farmers can save their own money and apply for loans collectively. This is done via Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs), groups of 15 to 30 people, mostly women, who work together and pool their savings.

With the help of knowledge, a sense of community, and loans, they can unleash their entrepreneurial potential and implement their own plans, such as starting a vegetable-growing cooperative. Additional income from such initiatives improves the social status of women and the living standard of their families. Moreover, diversification in the crops grown—in Africa, bananas, corn, cassava, papaya, or pineapple, for example—opens up additional sources of income and contributes to improved food security. And additional income enables more children to go to school and at the same time reduces 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 of central importance to them in supporting their children’s education, improving local development, and making progress toward ending exploitative child labor.

The challenge: the economic dependence of women

Women who work on cocoa farms are often financially disadvantaged, as they are hardly able to earn their own income and additionally bear the main responsibility for domestic work and child-rearing. They are therefore often financially dependent on their husbands. Frequently for women, access to education is also more difficult and opportunities fewer than for men. When women manage farms themselves, they often lack sufficient support. Women’s income and educational status have a direct influence on the health and education of their children and family members.

Our approach: information and monitoring for better child welfare

We identify and reduce those types of child labor which have been categorized as illegal by international as well as national law. The instrument used for this is the Child Labor Monitoring and Remediation System (CLMRS), which is designed to protect children and to monitor and eliminate child labor in the supply chain. In the first step, a risk analysis is undertaken in households and communities. The farmers are interviewed about how they deal with the children who work on their
farms. Individually tailored measures are then developed to remedy the situation. In the villages, child protection officers are appointed and trained to implement the CLMRS on-site. If children are being made to do illegal work, they are pulled out of these activities. This can only succeed if farmers are able to manage without the free child labor. One key to this lies in the imparting of knowledge about the efficient working and cultivation methods of the cocoa commitment sustainability program.

The children freed from illegal child labor should also be given the opportunity to go to school. This may require building schools or implementing programs for higher incomes and savings so that parents can pay for tuition. As a result, children gain the opportunity to receive a good education and to earn their own living later.

The problem: exploitative child labor

In the cocoa supply chain, illegal and exploitative child labor remains a widespread problem, one that can be traced back to dire poverty and a lack of knowledge. Many people don’t recognize the boundary between “helping out a bit on the farm after school” and illegal child labor.

Schoolchildren are used above all during the main harvest season as full-time workers, including for dangerous tasks such as handling pesticides, working with machetes, or climbing trees. They often work night shifts, without pay, without protective clothing or equipment, and sometimes in the slavery-like conditions of forced labor on unfamiliar, faraway farms. This prevents the children from going to school—parents often don’t have the money to pay for their schooling anyway—and leads to the disruption of their physical and mental development.

Our approach: participation in the sustainability program

Through the measures of the cocoa commitment sustainability program, participating farmers and cooperatives obtain access to knowledge that enables them to reduce costs on their farms and increase the yields and the quality of the cocoa they produce. The reward is markedly higher revenues, creating the financial capacity 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 associations, or cooperatives. Entire villages are dependent on cocoa farming. If farm management skills and the knowledge of modern agricultural practices are underdeveloped, profits may be at risk, as the production costs will then be too high, and yields and quality insufficient.

Our approach: reforestation of fallow land

In the framework of cocoa commitment, abandoned farmland outside of national parks and agricultural areas is reforested in order to restore the native regional flora and fauna to land outside of these conservation areas as well.

Significant deforestation has occurred in the affected regions in the past. In reforesting these areas, trees and plants are chosen that are native to the respective region’s primeval forests and are “climate smart”—that is, robust enough to adapt to climatic changes. For example, 11,000 native trees might be planted in a ten-hectare area and monitored for three years. To ensure that the new forest isn’t cleared again, the communities receive Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES), a kind of compensation tied to environmental projects, such as the establishment of plant nurseries in cooperation with women’s associations in the communities, or programs to distribute efficient cooking stoves that burn less firewood.

The challenge: fallow acreage

When a cleared forest area is depleted by monoculture cocoa farming, another section of forest is then cleared for cultivation—sometimes illegally, in nature reserves. The depleted acreage is abandoned. However, the soil isn’t fertile enough to support the regrowth of a healthy, full natural forest, but only scrubby undergrowth lacking in biodiversity.

Our approach: better knowledge about crop protection and fertilization

In the framework of projects and training courses, the cocoa farmers acquire up-to-date knowledge about how environmentally friendly crop protection works and how to optimize fertilization methods. Instead of the expensive use of large amounts of chemical pesticides, natural methods are often the better choice. This benefits 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 against weeds, while at the same time providing shade. Mulch from cocoa pods, which is to be found on the farm anyway, is also an excellent soil conditioner.

The challenge: incorrect use of pesticides and fertilizers

Due to insufficient knowledge and a lack of access to ecological pest control and fertilization methods, conventional farming practices often employ large amounts of environmentally damaging and even incorrect pesticides and fertilizers. This approach is expensive and eats into profits. At the same time, it takes a heavy toll on ecosystems and on the health of the people using the pesticides. The financial burdens it imposes make it difficult for farmers to earn a living wage, often leaving illegal deforestation and further monoculture farming as the only way out—which in turn destroys important ecosystems and reduces biodiversity.

Our approach: Climate Smart Cocoa

What can be done in a dry growing region to help the soil better retain water from the rainy season, and to prevent evaporation 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 given a particularly dry or wet growing season? Which alternative varieties of cocoa plants are best suited to changing climate conditions? What technical aides may be used? How can the carbon footprint of cocoa cultivation be reduced?

Each region and cooperative requires its own Climate Smart Cocoa (CSC) strategies, which are taught through projects and in training sessions. The objectives are to improve productivity while simultaneously building resilience in the face of possible climate change scenarios, and to reduce 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 the long term. The consequences can be immediate or long-term crop failures due to periods of drought or heavy rainfall which threaten farmers’ livelihoods. Some current growing regions may lose their suitability for cocoa cultivation altogether in the coming decades.

Our approach: mapping farmland

Farmers who want to become part of cocoa commitment must guarantee that none of their farming areas are situated in a nature reserve, and must pledge not to engage in further deforestation. This is monitored using polygonal mapping. First, the cooperatives map the farmers’ cultivation areas by means of GPS data. This data is then used in a supply chain mapping tool to confirm that the farms aren’t located in protected areas and that the farmers don’t clear 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 whether the mapping has been falsified. Is the crop yield remarkably high for the area cultivated? Then satellite photos and on-site visits are used to determine whether farming is taking place in illegal areas. However, the system isn’t based on control alone: it is also about solution paths for farmers. For farms located near conservation areas, farm management plans are drawn up to prevent farming from encroaching on the forest. Cocoa commitment–certified cocoa thus comes from deforestation-free farms.

The challenge: illegal logging that is hard to detect

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

Our approach: agroforestry and Good Agricultural Practice (GAP)

Monocultures are avoidable, as the alternatives deliver higher total yields over the long term: diversified agroforestry combined with Good Agricultural Practice (GAP). On cocoa farms, this means the use of suitable plant varieties, the proper use of shading from 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, like bananas, papaya, or cassava, provides additional income and is complemented by sustainably grown trees for lumber.

As a result, it isn’t necessary to create new fields or fell trees in adjacent areas for lumber. The implementation of these practices is achieved through the development and transfer of knowledge in the communities and on the farms, regarding questions such as: How can the stock of cocoa trees continuously be rejuvenated? Which seedlings should be selected? How do cocoa trees have to be pruned? Which crops thrive in particular, and what 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 primeval forest or rainforest land. This is extremely damaging to the environment: biodiversity is lost, large amounts 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 on such lands is in high demand, as it can be used as free firewood or sold as valuable high-quality lumber. Monocultures have been the default practice for decades, and any knowledge of better alternatives is often lacking. Another disadvantage of this practice is that it makes the farm reliant on a single source of revenue. A failed harvest means a sharp drop in its income.

Our approach: teaching financial knowledge

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

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.

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.