IITA and partners organized an annual CocoaSoils forum themed “Looking back and moving forward: Overview of results, achievements, and key learnings” on 12 May. The conference highlighted the progress achieved and defined priorities for the program’s next phase.
During the welcome address, the Director R4D, Central Africa and Natural Resource Management, Bernard Vanlauwe, said the forum aims to support the private and public sectors to improve the livelihood of cocoa farmers. Following the output presentation, Vanluawe stated, “We will be starting a second phase of the program to ensure we have conclusive data from the core and satellite trials.”
He said that the program would capitalize on the challenges encountered in the first phase and how Cocoasoils will feature in the new CGIAR.
The Senior Adviser, Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), Department for Climate, Energy, and Environment, Daniel van Gilst, summarized the CocoaSoils program. He said the annual forum focuses on Cocoa research with past meetings held in Ghana, Cameroon, and virtually in 2021. He noted that, based on the research outputs, Norad finds the program unique and full of potential and commits to “continue our support through the CGIAR Excellence in Agronomy initiatives,” he said.
The Executive Director, Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN), Dr Patrick Adebola, commended the program for considering the issue of soil fertility and soil degradation affecting cocoa production and the program’s structure that is end-users inclusive. He added that “CRIN is delighted to be part of the program, and we will give our utmost support for it.”
Representing Dr Mohammad Abubakar, the Federal Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), FMARD Director of Extension, Engr Frank Kudla, complemented IITA, Norad, and other partners on the implementation strategies of CocoaSoils, and for providing all stakeholders, including farmers and extension agents, with a manual guide to decrease deforestation and increase productivity in cocoa.
Kudla said FMARD would ensure all research findings and lessons learned from Partnerships for Delivery (P4D) are adopted in the National Agricultural Extension System (NARES). “The findings will be used to meet our cocoa agronomic practices, global competitiveness to ensure food security, and improve Nigeria’s economy,” he stated.
The CocoaSoils Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist, Theresa Ampadu-Boakye, gave an overview of the results, achievements, and key learnings from the first phase of the program. She shared some of the achievements, including training 625 extension agents and 65,066 smallholder cocoa farmers on Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) and Good Agriculture Practices (GAPs), the establishment of 383 satellite trials in the four countries—Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria—across various ecological zones. She added that private and public stakeholder partners use new cocoa ISFM-related research products. Decision-makers use tools and knowledge to avoid increased deforestation and child labor while promoting intensified cocoa production.
Similarly, the multi-stakeholder and multiple-country approaches provide a conveying platform to address the challenges faced by the cocoa industry; and partnerships with the private sector serve as an excellent avenue for data sharing and sustain the dissemination of both existing and new research recommendations.
Wageningen University and Research (WUR) Professor of Plants Production Systems, Ken Giller, moderated a panel discussion where Mondelez International Research and Development Head Dr Emmanuel Kassin, COCOBOD Research Scientist Dr Prince Pobee, and CRIN Research Scientist Dr Moses Ogunlade shared their thoughts on closing knowledge gaps.
Vanlauwe highlighted how the Excellence in Agronomy initiative would impact the future CocoaSoils program. He further explained the six elements that will deliver targets in the second phase: active partners engaging with cocoa farmers, sourcing areas of scaling partners, agronomy products for zero-deforestation cocoa intensification, scaling networks of partners, co-support of partners, and development of public goods.
He also outlined some of the activities in the second phase of the program, including selecting Core and Satellite trials, discontinuing those that are unlikely to deliver any beneficial result, developing the stepwise platform for perennial agronomy, and renewing the CocoaSoils consortium agreement.
Contributed by Anita Akinyomade
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