Background
Cocoa plantations in West Africa are not as productive as expected, yielding low income for farmers. To compensate and improve their livelihoods, farmers have resulted to expanding their farms into forests. Amongst other factors, poor soil fertility has emerged as one of the most critical factors that has contributed to a decline in productivity in cocoa. In addition, the knowledge gap on good crop nutrition and proper management of cocoa trees cannot be overemphasised.
Particularly, knowledge on the best nutrition for the cocoa tree (in terms of the different key plant nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and other nutrients is lacking). It is for this reason that the CocoaSoils program; a 5-year initiative funded by NORAD and aimed at delivering improved soil fertility management recommendations to cocoa farmers in Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, and Cameroon within the context of Integrated Soil Fertility Management for improved yield and avoided deforestation was launched.
Our Partners
The program is funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD). It is led by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA)and Wageningen University and Research (WUR)and benefits from engagement from national Cocoa Research Institutes of Cameroon (IRAD), Côte d’Ivoire (CNRA), Ghana (CRIG)and Nigeria (CRIN); international research centres (including the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture – CIAT, the World Agroforestry Centre – ICRAF, the UN Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre – UNEP-WCMC); and some cocoa and fertilizer companies convened through the Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH)across West Africa.
