Cocoa Farmers Field School: PADIC-Africa trains 59 Cocoa Farmers
Panacea for Developmental and Infrastructural Challenges for Africa Initiative (PADIC-Africa) also known as Development Concern (DEVCON) has organised Farmers Field School, training 59 Cocoa Farmers in Edondon community.
The two-day training which took place on the 5th to 7th of June, 2023 in Edondon community, Obubra local government area of the state with the theme; “Good Agricultural Practices for Cocoa Farmers”, was funded by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Global Environment Facility (GEF) Small Grant, with project titled “Developing Forest Economies and Sustainable Forest Management in Edondon”.
In his welcome speech, the Executive Director, PADIC-Africa, Dr. Martins Egot, said the training was aimed at getting the farmers to adopt intensified approach to reduce landscape degradation from forest clearing for cocoa farming.
He said this would increase cocoa productivity and income from cocoa by 30 percent and also geared towards building farmers capacity in cocoa production to reduce the rate of farm expansion into black bush.
According to him, the project major aim was to protect the forest of Edondon from further degradation through more effective rule enforcement and sustainable food production and to increase forest cover by 20 percent through more effective forest management system with more inclusive forest monitoring and rule enforcement.
Dr. Egot added, “this is also to increase women’s income by 20 percent, to be achieved through training on market gardening and planting of income generating tree crops like bush mango at the end of the project.
The resource person, an International Management System Manager (IMS) at Tulip Cocoa Processing Limited, McStephen Kembre, took the participants through the manual guided by the following content: Farm establishment, talking about steps to establishment and development; specific and basic criteria for selecting seedlings.
Other issues discussed were on Erosion control, Fertilizer application, Soil fertility, Integrated crop harvest handling, Productivity enhancement, Good social practices with highlights on “Child Labour”, the causes, protection and its objectives, Child participation, Child’s Rights and Forced Labour in relation to Cocoa Farmers and their farming practices.
Kenbre further took the participants on a Field Practical work in a Cocoa farm where concerns on the use of chemicals and fertilizer application were adequately addressed.
Other aspects were on the appropriate time to spray certain chemicals and the use of improved cocoa variety.
PHOTO: Field Demonstration; The Facilitator at the Cocoa Farmers Field Training Workshop , McStephen Kembre, addressing concerns on the use of chemicals and fertilizer application and the use of improved Cocoa Varieties in a Cocoa farm in Edondon.