Hardier pods and increasing yields – music to a farmer’s ears
Increasing yields
Hardier pods and increasing yields – music to a farmer’s ears One of our most successful projects has been the raising of hundreds of thousands of cocoa seedlings for subsidised sale to farmers in the local community. Lynn had heard on the earliest visit that the yield from the elderly cocoa trees on many farms was declining year on year, and the constant problem of disease in the cocoa pods was further exacerbating the situation. Cocoa farmers were able to purchase new seedlings, but this involved a long and expensive trip to the research centre, together with a bumpy ride home which often destroyed the fragile little plants making the journey. No wonder the farmers, often existing at subsistence level themselves, were reluctant to take the risk.
By setting up a seedlings nursery in Osuben village, right in the middle of the poorest community, we were able to raise our own crop of healthy plants. We also ensured that our seedlings were a new, hardier variety of hybrid cocoa which would be more resistant to disease. These seedlings we sold to the local farmers at subsidised rates, and used the income to buy further seedlings for the following year.
Such was the interest of the farmers, after much initial scepticism, that they began to get involved themselves, competing to run nursery schemes in their own farms, tending the plants for the crucial first 3 months of life when they are the most vulnerable, and then setting up mini distribution networks of their own. David, our farm manager in Osuben beams with pride, “After our humble beginnings of 8000 seedlings raised in the first year, we now have 10 satellite nurseries raising more than 100,000 seedlings each year, across 2 different regions of Ghana. Last year my son was champion nursery manager, winning the prize from Hotel Chocolat for the best-managed farm.”
And the beauty of this project is that it is now virtually self-funding. We provide the set-up funds for each new nursery but the established areas are self-sustaining, and the records show that more than 100 farming families have benefited from greater crop coverage and improved yield. And when your existence depends on the quality of your annual harvest, with pretty much no alternative plan, that’s good news for everyone.
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