2,000 FARMERS TRAINED UNDER STCP (PAGE 61, JUNE 16, 2010)

THE Sustainable Tree Crops Programme (STCP) of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) has trained about 2,000 cocoa farmers in best farm practices under the second phase of the Cocoa Sector Support Programme (CSSP11) project.
This is to ensure improved sustainability of cocoa production in the country.
The project, funded by the European Union (EU), is to improve the livelihood of smallholder cocoa farmers in the country.
Under the project, over 509,000 cocoa seedlings have been distributed among farmers who have planted about 463.5 hectares. About 28,386 timber seedlings have also been made available to the farmers.
The farmers were drawn from eight districts in the Western and Ashanti regions. The districts are Bia, Juaboso, Sefwi Wiawso and Wassa Amenfi East in the Western Region, and Ahafo Ano North, Amansie Central, Bekwai Municipality and Adansi South in the Ashanti Region.
The farmers were trained in integrated crop and pest management (ICPM) and planting, replanting and diversification (PRD) from March 2009 to December 2009.
The farmers were taken through basic agribusiness skill training from February to May 2010, and have been able to establish 60 farmer field schools.
Also, through farmer-to-farmer knowledge diffusion, they have been able to pass on their skills and knowledge to additional 2,552 farmers in their communities.
Another 38 Video Viewing Clubs have also bee established and a total of 998 farmers were trained in ICPM and PRD through this methodology.
Topics treated included pruning of cocoa trees, integration of timber trees in cocoa systems, blackpod disease management, rational pesticide use, soil fertility management and nursery establishment and management, preparing a cocoa farm business plan, farm budgeting, credit management, profit analysis and investment opportunities.
Out of the total number of farmers trained, 2,033 were further trained in occupational safety and health, including the handling of sharp tools, farm emergencies, posture during farming, carrying of loads, use of personal protective clothing and equipment.
A grand graduation ceremony had been held for the farmers at Sefwi Wiawso in the Western Region during which they were awarded certificates.
Speaking at the ceremony, the Head of Co-operation of the EU Delegation in Ghana, Mr Kurt Cornelis, said funding of the CSSP11 had given the European Union the opportunity to support one of the most important strategic sub-sectors of Ghana’s economy.
In that programme, he said the EU provided total funding of EUR 11 million which was channelled through the COCOBOD to support the eradication of the Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus.
Mr Cornelis added that a substantial part of the funding went into the enhancement of the capacity of the COCOBOD to research, breed and produce improved disease resistant hybrid planting materials.
Additionally, he said the programme supported the demarcation of swollen shoot endemic areas and provided compensation payments to affected farmers.
He said further that through the programme, the EU was able to contribute to the record high cocoa production in Ghana over the past decade and thus, helped to maintain Ghana’s global competitiveness.
“In line with EU policies, there has been a re-focus of our development support towards improvement of the technical know-how of farmers through extension delivery, intensification and diversification of cocoa systems and improved self organising capacities of farmers at the community level, ” he explained adding that “All these elements should combine to assist in the commercialisation of cocoa farming in Ghana”.
He said the EU had committed a total funding of EUR 5million for CSSP11 for the period 2007-2011.
Out of this amount, he explained that the IITA was managing EUR 3.5 million, while the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) through the Seed Production Unit (SPU) with the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) managing EUR 1 million.
This intervention, he said, was complemented by the broader development programme of the EU in Ghana, which was seeking to support the decentralisation process and greater empowerment of civil society, with a view to enhancing grassroot delivery mechanisms and structures to reduce poverty.
Mr Cornelis explained that the EU consulted a wide range of stakeholders in preparing the CSSP11 and that through these consultations, it became aware of the success that the IITA had achieved under the STCP in West Africa.
“Therefore, in collaboration with the Government of Ghana, represented by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning and the Ghana Cocoa Board, IITA was selected as a key implementer of the Cocoa Sector Support Programme Two in Ghana, ” he said.
He said this was in line with the EU’s policy of involving non-public sector development partners in the implementation of programmes.
Mr Cornelis pointed out that the EU believed that a transition from traditional cocoa farming systems, with attendant high costs of production, to a more commercially oriented farming system could only be achieved in an environment of strong stakeholder collaboration and public-private partnerships.
The Deputy Executive Officer of the COCOBOD, Dr Yaw Adu Ampomah, noted that despite the contribution of cocoa to the Ghanaian economy and farm families as a whole, the sector was beset with countless challenges.
Some of these challenges, he said, were inadequate adoption of improved technologies, lack of farmer skills to adopt technologies, deforestation resulting from expansion of cocoa farms, poor self organisation of cocoa communities to access production support services, pest and disease-related problems and lack of basic business skills for farm enterprise management.
Dr Ampomah said COCOBOD was taking measures to ensure that the challenges were addressed.
He mentioned the mass cocoa spraying exercise which assisted farmers to spray their farms against mirids and blackpod diseases, and the Cocoa High-Tech programme, which assisted and facilitated farmers’ access to the use of fertilisers and agro-pesticides.
These efforts, he said, had had significant impact on production growth.
Dr Ampomah said funding from the EU, the STCP, CRIG and the SPU, had been actively working together to ensure that outputs of smallholder cocoa farmers were increased under different contractual arrangements.
He said this drive contributed towards COCOBOD’s target of exporting one million tons of cocoa in the medium-term, and concurrently increasing income of smallholder cocoa farmers.
He said the extension materials, tools and approaches developed by the STCP and IITA was being discussed for integration into the country’s newly emerging extension systems under a public-private partnership led by the COCOBOD.
The Country Manager of IITA/STCP, Mr Isaac Gyamfi, said his outfit had collaborated with the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana to find out how to train cocoa farmers in modern technology in cocoa production for the past seven years.
He said the outcome of this collaboration had enabled the IITA to expand the programme and approach the EU for assistance.
Mr Gyamfi emphasised that the STCP was not intended to take over the functions of the extension officers of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.
The Sefwi Wiawso District Chief Executive, Mr S. W. Kofi Mensah, said the district was one of the largest cocoa growing areas in the Western Region.
He appealed to the country’s development partners to assist the communities in the district through the introduction of some interventions and other innovations to enable people in the area to improve their living conditions.