Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana, the two largest cocoa producers in the world, are currently facing major difficulties: climate change, resurgence of certain diseases, instability of world cocoa prices, etc.

In order to promote the decoupling between cocoa farming and deforestation, while contributing to the restoration of degraded cocoa plantations, the INP-HB Higher School of Agronomy, four Ivorian universities, a Ghanaian university and two NGOs.*

joined forces with other partners in the Cocoa4Future project. They have just signed, with CIRAD, a consortium agreement which defines the terms of intervention of this project financed by the DeSIRA program (Development Smart Innovation through Research in Agriculture) of the European Union to the tune of € 6 million and € 1 million by the French Development Agency (AFD), CIRAD announced today.

"Cocoa4future aims to identify the most efficient cocoa farming systems and to invent, with cocoa farmers and players in the cocoa sector, sustainable technical-economic and organizational models, which guarantee decent living conditions for producers", announces Patrick Jagoret, agronomist at CIRAD and project coordinator.

"About fifteen sites, divided between Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana, will be closely monitored," says the researcher. In all, 150 plots will be subject to regular checks, in terms of ecosystem services, production, and resilience to climate change or disease. »

Until 2025, the project partners will assess the agronomic, ecological and socio-economic performance of the main cocoa farming systems present in West Africa (monoculture, simple agroforestry and complex agroforestry).

Thus, many farmers, in Côte d'Ivoire as in Ghana, divide their time between cocoa farming and other complementary activities, such as fish farming or rice farming. However, the chemical inputs used in cocoa farming can impact the quality of surface water and therefore the development of fish. The impact of these practices will be studied in partnership with APDRA. The researchers also intend to understand the evolution of the practices and strategies of cocoa producers. 400 farms in Côte d'Ivoire are thus monitored by the University of Daloa and CIRAD, and 150 others in Ghana are studied by the University of Ghana.

*5 Ivorian research institutions: Félix Houphouët-Boigny University (Ivorian Center for Economic and Social Research, Wascal and UFR Biosciences), Higher School of Agronomy/ Houphouët-Boigny National Polytechnic Institute (Departments of Forestry, and Management, Commerce and Applied Economics), Jean Lorougnon Guede Daloa University (Interdisciplinary Research Group in Landscape Ecology and Environment), University of Nangui Abrogoua (laboratories of Ecology and Sustainable Development and Food Biotechnology and Microbiology), and the National Center for agricultural research;

2 Ghanaian research institutions: Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana, University of Ghana (School of Agriculture and Institute Of Statistical, Social And Economic Research);

2 NGOs: Apdra (fish farming) and Nitidae (creation of value chains and organic cocoa)