|
Cocoa, cashew
farmers gain support from Bill & Melinda Gates
Accra, Feb. 18, Ghanadot/GNA - The
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, on Wednesday, announced two
significant partnerships and $48 million in grants to help
hundreds of thousands of small cocoa and cashew farmers in
sub-Saharan Africa significantly increase their incomes so
they can lift themselves out of hunger and poverty.
The two grants - $23 million to the World Cocoa Foundation
and $25 million to the German development organization,
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ)
GmbH - were awarded in conjunction with $42 million in cash
and in-kind contributions from private industry, a statement
from the Foundation received in Accra said.
The five-year project would reach approximately 200,000
smallholder cocoa farming households in Cameroon, Côte
d'Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, and Nigeria and aims to help
farmers double their incomes by 2013.
The project would complement the broader work of the World
Cocoa Foundation, which works in partnership with its
industry members, to ensure cocoa cultivation is sustainable
and delivers greater benefits to the farmers who grow it.
Cocoa and cashew provide income for millions of small
farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, who, like a majority of the
world’s poorest people, live in rural areas and rely on
agriculture for their food and income.
The statement said these projects would help farmers improve
the quality and quantity of their crops and provide them
with reliable opportunities to sell their crops so they
could build better lives for themselves and their families.
It said the grants were part of the Foundation’s
Agricultural Development initiative, which was working with
a wide range of partners in sub-Saharan Africa and South
Asia to strengthen the entire agricultural value chain -
from seeds and soil to farm management and market access -
so that progress against hunger and poverty was sustainable
over the long term.
“The grants complement financial support and in-kind
contributions from the private sector, nongovernmental
organizations, and local governments. Farmer associations
will also play a significant role in leading training and
knowledge sharing,” it said.
Dr. Rajiv Shah, Director of Agricultural Development at the
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said: “Making real progress
against global hunger and poverty starts with small farmers.”
He added: “Creative partnerships like these bring together
the knowledge of locally based NGOs and governments with the
technical know-how and market expertise of private-sector
firms, and have the potential to help millions of farmers
boost their yields and incomes they can improve their
lives.”
Cocoa is West Africa’s largest agricultural export,
accounting for 70 per cent of the world’s supply, mainly
from Ghana and Cote I’Ivoire.
About two million West African smallholder farming
households rely on cocoa production for a significant
portion of their income.
Administered by the World Cocoa Foundation, the cocoa
project will be implemented by a number of NGOs and other
partners, including GTZ, the International Institute of
Tropical Agriculture (IITA)/Sustainable Tree Crops Program
and TechnoServe.
The statement said the cocoa project was aimed at increasing
farming household incomes through improved farmer knowledge
and productivity, better cocoa quality, crop
diversification, and improved supply chain efficiencies.
Financial and in-kind contributions for the cocoa project
come from major branded manufacturers - The Hershey Company,
Kraft Foods, and Mars, Incorporated; cocoa processors Archer
Daniels Midland Company, Barry Callebaut, Blommer Chocolate
Company, and Cargill; and supply chain managers and allied
industries Armajaro, Ecom-Agrocacao, Olam International Ltd.
and Starbucks Coffee Company.
“Cocoa has the potential to deliver significant improvements
in income as well as in family and community well-being
across rural West and Central Africa,” said Bill Guyton,
president of the World Cocoa Foundation.
He added: “Delivering on this promise, however, requires
sustained and innovative investment in educating farmers,
diversifying the crops they grow, improving their marketing
efficiency, and the involvement of companies working
together. This new partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation represents a major step forward in these areas,
opening the door to a much brighter future for hundreds of
thousands of farm families in the region.”
Africa is responsible for about one-third of the world’s
cashew crop. However, a lack of cashew processing facilities
in Africa has created major market inefficiencies and denies
Africans the economic benefits that accompany jobs in the
cashew processing sector.
The cashew project aims to improve the quality of raw cashew
nut cultivation, increase farmer productivity, improve
linkages between smallholder farmers and the marketplace,
build African processing capacity, and promote a sustainable
global market for African cashews.
The project’s goal is to help 150,000 smallholder cashew
farming households in Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire,
Ghana, and Mozambique increase their incomes by 50 percent
by 2012.
“This project will help develop strong groups of cashew
farmers that, with the help of the private sector, can be
linked to factories,” said Winfred Osei Owusu, CEO, West
Africa Markets Link in Ghana. “This will create local jobs
and bring additional income to the people in our country who
need it the most.”
GTZ will lead the cashew project with assistance from the
African Cashew Alliance (ACA), FairMatch Support, and
TechnoServe.
Financial support, in-kind contributions, and other support
for the cashew project come from supply chain managers and
processors Global Trading Agency BV (GTA) and Olam
International Ltd.; branded manufacturers Intersnack Group
GmbH & Co. KG and Kraft Foods; retailer Costco Wholesale
Corporation; equipment manufacturer Oltremare; and other
contributors, the German investment and development company
DEG - Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft
mbH, and the United States Agency for International
Development.
GNA
|
