Titles in the Working Paper Series aim to disseminate interim results on agroforestry research and practices and stimulate feedback from the scientific community. Other publication series from the World Agroforestry Centre include: Trees for Change Technical Manuals and Occasional Papers. Cocoa yield per hectare in Côte d`Ivoire is among the lowest in the world ranging from 0.2 to 0.5 tons/ha per year. This figure continues to decline each season due to decreased soil fertility increased disease pressure the aging of cocoa orchards and low use of inputs (Assiri et al. 2012 FLA 2012). Yields could be increased if farmers were able to apply fertilizer in recommended quantities replant old orchards (especially with improved cocoa varieties) and control diseases with fungicides and other methods. However for various reasons such as lack of financial means low levels of technical training and reduced incentives to invest in cocoa because of low prices the majority of Ivorian cocoa farmers are not implementing these soil and crop improvement management methods. In view of this Mars Incorporated in collaboration with the Ivorian Government embarked on the Vision for Change (V4C) project as a means of addressing the problem of low productivity of cocoa. This project is being implemented by the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF). The initiative is currently setting up a network of Cocoa Development Centres (CDCs) throughout the region of Soubré the most productive cocoa region in Côte d`Ivoire and conducting on-farm research into different cocoa cultivars rehabilitation of old orchards by grafting and the effect of fertilizer application and other management practices (ICRAF 2012). In future the project will enter the extension stage and the best methods of increasing cocoa yields plus affordable inputs to accomplish them will be made accessible to farmers throughout the region. This initiative is designed on the same model as a successful project initiated in Indonesia by Mars in 2003 which increased cocoa yields from 0.5 to 2.5 tons/ha per year on average (Pye-Smith 2011). Initial studies of the effects of rehabilitation methods in field trials in Côte dâIvoire are encouraging showing an 83% average increase in yields and an average profitability rate of 377% (Assiri et al. 2012). The data collected for this report comes from several different sources. Detailed information was collected on production consumption and sale of the selected products in villages in the intervention zone via a targeted quantitative survey. In order to create value chain maps estimate demand and determine overall advantages and constraints for development of each product methods used included targeted interviews with key informants market observations interviews of selected actors in the value chains of the different products and farmer focus group meetings. The use of multiple methods allows data to be triangulated and cross-checked for consistency
Publication year
2016
Authors
Keywords
Cocoa yield, Ivorian cocoa, Research, Farmers
