Accra, July 28, GNA — Solidaridad West Africa, through the second phase of the Cocoa Rehabilitation and Intensification Programme (CORIP ll), has mobilised 17.5 million euros in private capital for cocoa farmers and SMEs operating the service delivery models.
This has enabled 148,010 farmers to implement responsible production practices on their farms, with 178,518 hectares of cocoa farms brought under sustainable production.
Under the programme, Solidaridad, through an investment readiness support model, prepared small and medium enterprises for commercial funding to grow their businesses.
Mr Isaac Kwadwo Gyamfi, the Regional Director for Solidaridad West Africa, speaking at the close out event of the Programme, said the CORIP had demonstrated that service delivery through commercial partners was key to mobilizing the needed private capital for cocoa sustainability in West Africa.
He said the service delivery models had shown that it was possible to use ethical labour, promote the adoption of responsible production practices, and improve household incomes for cocoa farmers.
The four-year programme, implemented between November 2017 and December 2021, focused on contributing toward the climate-smart intensification of existing cocoa production systems, leading to sustainable productivity improvements and economic returns for cocoa farmers in Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
CORIP II, which was funded by the Embassy of the Netherlands in Accra, follows the successful implementation of the first phase (2013-2017), which demonstrated the business case for developing sustainable West African cocoa production through the setup and operation of service delivery models.
He said the programme supported young entrepreneurs across Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, and Sierra Leone to establish 146 service delivery enterprises to provide critical professional services.
These services include farm maintenance, labour, agro-inputs, and tools, to cocoa farmers within the cocoa landscape of the four countries to boost their production capacity.
More than 4,400 jobs were created by these SMEs operating the service delivery models with over 80,000 farmers who were reached by these SMEs, increased their yields, and transitioned out of poverty.
The Regional Director said the support, which includes training in business model optimization, climate-smart cocoa production and entrepreneurship, had given the enterprises the professional outlook needed to attract impact investors to scale up their business and render services to cocoa farmers in hard-to-reach communities.
Reverend Edwin Afari, the Director of Research, Monitoring and Evaluation at COCOBOD, said some service provision companies established in communities in the Western, Western North, and Brong-Ahafo regions were providing services under the Board’s Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus Disease treatment programme in the regions.
He said Solidaridad, under the programme, collaborated with the Cocoa Health and Extension Division (CHED) to train over 70,000 cocoa farmers in climate-smart cocoa production in the Ashanti, Brong-Ahafo, Volta, and Western regions.
Mr Jeroen Verheul, the Dutch Ambassador to Ghana, said the programme had contributed to the Embassy’s overarching goal of poverty reduction and sustainable cocoa production in the programme countries.
He said the CORIP ll had generated valuable lessons that would contribute to the conceptualization, design, funding, and implementation of future programmes, not only for donors like the Dutch government but for private actors and governments as well.
He expressed the hope that the Government, the Ghana Cocoa Board, and all relevant stakeholders, would work with the Dutch Government to build an ecosystem that supported the development of a competitive cocoa sector in the country.
He said the Netherlands had been a major player in the cocoa sector and they would continue to remain and provide the needed support.
The rationale for CORIP II is to contribute toward the transformation of the West African cocoa sector through thriving and responsible cocoa-growing communities.
GNA