Aponaponso (Ash), March 7, GNA – The Dutch Ambassador to Ghana, Jereon Verheul, has applauded Solidaridad West Africa for its role in the implementation of the second phase of the Cocoa Rehabilitation and Intensification Programme (CORIP II).

He said the impact of the programme on the lives of smallholder farmers, especially women, was one of the positives that needed to be sustained to promote women’s empowerment.

Mr Verheul was addressing the media after a three-day field visit to interact with stakeholders and beneficiaries of CORIP II, which was funded by the Dutch Government and implemented by Solidaridad.

The four-year project, which ended last year, provided various interventions aimed at promoting financial inclusion among smallholder cocoa farmers, increasing access to farm inputs, encouraging additional livelihood activities and improving yields as well as income of farmers.

As part of the programme, over 5,000 members of Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLA) received about GHC20 million in loans to invest in their farms and other additional livelihood activities.

Farmers in cooperatives within beneficiary communities were linked to financial institutions to access credit facilities to invest in their farms and other economic activities.

Also, established under the programme are Rural Service Centres where cocoa farmers can access various agro-inputs and farm labour services such as cocoa farm rehabilitation, pruning and seedlings.

Mr Verheul, who interacted with the Bono and Ahafo Women’s Cooperative Cocoa Farmers and a women cooperative group at Dantia, told the media that the empowerment of women under the programme was a laudable initiative.

He was particularly impressed with the kind of products exhibited by the women as alternative sources of income to maintain their families during the lean season.

This, he noted, was the way to go to improve the lives of women in agriculture who were mostly under-resourced and marginalised.

He said much as he identified some challenges facing farmers in the cocoa sector, there were a lot of success stories that stakeholders could build on to grow the sector.

He said the Embassy would leverage on the positives of CORIP II and see how best they could feed into its new cocoa strategy, going forward.

CORIP II which was implemented in Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone and Liberia between 2017-2021, was to develop economic, social and environmentally sustainable support for farmers to address institutional challenges of the cocoa supply chain.

It followed the successful implementation of CORIP I between 2013-2017, which demonstrated the business case for developing the West African Cocoa production and processing through the Rural Service Centres, a strategic institutional arrangement for sustainable production.

GNA

Aponaponso (Ash), March 7, GNA – The Dutch Ambassador to Ghana, Jereon Verheul, has applauded Solidaridad West Africa for its role in the implementation of the second phase of the Cocoa Rehabilitation and Intensification Programme (CORIP II).

He said the impact of the programme on the lives of smallholder farmers, especially women, was one of the positives that needed to be sustained to promote women’s empowerment.

Mr Verheul was addressing the media after a three-day field visit to interact with stakeholders and beneficiaries of CORIP II, which was funded by the Dutch Government and implemented by Solidaridad.

The four-year project, which ended last year, provided various interventions aimed at promoting financial inclusion among smallholder cocoa farmers, increasing access to farm inputs, encouraging additional livelihood activities and improving yields as well as income of farmers.

As part of the programme, over 5,000 members of Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLA) received about GHC20 million in loans to invest in their farms and other additional livelihood activities.

Farmers in cooperatives within beneficiary communities were linked to financial institutions to access credit facilities to invest in their farms and other economic activities.

Also, established under the programme are Rural Service Centres where cocoa farmers can access various agro-inputs and farm labour services such as cocoa farm rehabilitation, pruning and seedlings.

Mr Verheul, who interacted with the Bono and Ahafo Women’s Cooperative Cocoa Farmers and a women cooperative group at Dantia, told the media that the empowerment of women under the programme was a laudable initiative.

He was particularly impressed with the kind of products exhibited by the women as alternative sources of income to maintain their families during the lean season.

This, he noted, was the way to go to improve the lives of women in agriculture who were mostly under-resourced and marginalised.

He said much as he identified some challenges facing farmers in the cocoa sector, there were a lot of success stories that stakeholders could build on to grow the sector.

He said the Embassy would leverage on the positives of CORIP II and see how best they could feed into its new cocoa strategy, going forward.

CORIP II which was implemented in Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone and Liberia between 2017-2021, was to develop economic, social and environmentally sustainable support for farmers to address institutional challenges of the cocoa supply chain.

It followed the successful implementation of CORIP I between 2013-2017, which demonstrated the business case for developing the West African Cocoa production and processing through the Rural Service Centres, a strategic institutional arrangement for sustainable production.

GNA