Smallholder agri-business programme discusses cocoa smallholders’ incomes

The Sustainable Smallholder Agri-Business Programme (SSAB) commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany, and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), has ended its three-day regional partner meeting in Accra.

The programme was under the theme ‘Strong smallholder entrepreneurs for a strong Cocoa sector! - Institutionising successful approaches to increase and diversify cocoa smallholders’ incomes’, and was aimed at showcasing successful approaches of SSAB to sector leaders, and to have discussions with numerous partners of the programme from Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire and Togo.

It was opened by the Head of Cooperation of the German Embassy, Mrs. Verena Wiesner, and the Deputy Chief Executive Director of Ghana Cocoa Board, Dr. Yaw Adu-Ampomah. Over 100 partners and stakeholders from the cocoa sector were present.

The SSAB is assisting smallholders in the cocoa production zones of Nigeria, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Togo to increase sustainably their income and food supply from diversified production.

In 2010, the precursory project ‘Sustainable Cocoa Business’ developed the Farmer Business School (FBS) approach for cocoa production systems with its partners. The aim is to support male and female smallholder farmers to become better farm Managers. The FBS training covers farm management and investment strategies for the use of Good Agricultural Practice (GPA).

Since then, more than 450,000 cocoa producers (29% of them female) have been trained by our local partners. In addition to FBS trainings, more than 167,000 cocoa farmers (30% women) have been trained in Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) for cocoa and food products.

The SSAB programme supports over 50 public, private and civil society partners in the five partner countries. In Ghana, the activities build on a very good collaboration with the Cocoa Health and Extension Division (CHED) of COCOBOD.

The joint effort to build capacities of extension agents and their supervisors in the FBS approach has contributed immensely to extension delivery, and to the incubation of farmer groups and cooperatives in Ghana.

Also, the private partners - AgroEcom, Touton, Dizengoff, Fidelity Bank, Mondelez, Solidaridad and Rainforest Alliance - were partners in scaling up and mainstreaming FBS and GAP trainings.

154,894 producers (32% women) Ghanaian cocoa farmers have been trained in FBS. 72,536 smallholders (33% women) underwent trainings on GAP for cocoa and food production.

Selected impacts are:

In a panel discussion, key stakeholders of the Ghanaian cocoa sector and other development programmes discussed sustainable institutionisation and financing of development approaches.

The discussions were on the successful institutionisation of SSAB approaches beyond the programme’s duration, which ends in December 2018.

Additionally, a start-up competition was organised for the development of a Farmer Business School application. The FBS app will be a tool of farmers for their financial management, complementary to the FBS training.

Three start-up companies were selected through a competitive call for proposals. During the meeting, they were assisted by experts in the field of tech, start-up businesses and Farmer Business School to further enhance their solutions.

The three competitors presented their concepts later in the day, and the winner was selected by an international jury and will get to develop the innovation further. This paves the way for digital continuation of SSAB training components. 

The Programme was launched in 2009, and is implemented in five African countries. Since 2014, the Cocoa-Food Link programme has been implemented with support from the European Union. With our partners, we implement cost-effective extension on Good Agricultural Practice, including ICT-media, to intensify cocoa and food production.

Agro-dealers and microfinance institutions establish with our assistance Business Service Centres providing inputs, technical advice, market information and agricultural loans based on formal bank savings as collateral. Moreover, we support exchange on proven approaches across cocoa countries and beyond.