Asamankese Cocoa Farmers' Own M&E Report on Orchard Renewal and Hybrid Varieties

hybrid cocoa plant at Asamankese Seedlings Production Unit

Photo by Konstantine Vekua

The Asamankese farmer talking about his experience on how diseases and drought affect hybrid cocoa more than older varieties

Promotion of hybrid cocoa variety and renewal of aged cocoa farms with this variety is one of the corner stones of confectionery industry's and national governments' efforts for the sustainable transformation of cocoa farming. It is described as a solution to reduce deforestation, increase yield per farmer and per 1 size unit of land and ultimately to increase the income of the farmers. You can read annual, impact or progress reports how many new seedlings have been produced and distributed, but:

1. have you read what is the real field performance of this variety?
2. what are adopter farmers opinions and results?
3. is the variety helping to achieve the objectives of reduction of deforestation, higher yields and higher incomes?

I think most of you have not seen answers to these questions. Until now. I am happy to share with you farmers' own evaluation of this variety based on which you can judge what actual contribution hybrid cocoa variety provides to the objectives of improving farmers' incomes and reduction of cocoa system's demand for expansion through deforestation. All the data you will read now is from my quantitative survey of 90 cocoa farmers in Asamankese district of Eastern region of Ghana. 

Let's start. 

Table 1: interviewed farmers

Finding 1: Majority of farmers base their assessment on their own experience/observation of hybrid variety's performance. So they have practical experience about it.

Finding 2: To check/verify answers to first question, farmers were asked if they have already planted hybrid cocoa varieties. Majority of farmers have indeed done so.

Finding 3: Checking how industry's declared advantage of "shorter time to first crop"of hybrid cocoa has indeed been the case with farmers. The result: it varies.

Finding 4: Checking how industry's declared advantage of "higher yield"of hybrid cocoa has indeed been the case with farmers. The result: YES but only 44% of farmers report double yield.

Finding 5: Do farmers trust the quality and true-to-type of seedlings from SPUs

The result:  YES, most of them do.

Finding 6: Higher yield is fine but how much of that higher yield can a farmer keep till harvest time, if diseases hit? Result: NO, hybrid variety is less resistant to diseases than older variety. This will reduce maximum attainable yield.

Finding 7: Again, higher yielding potential is great but, if farmer has a drought, will this potential materialize? Result: NO, hybrid variety will yield less if drought hits farmers, i.e hybrid variety is not Climate-Change proof (unless you irrigate, which is beyond fantasy in West Africa)

Finding 8: What about annual maintenance? Does hybrid variety require farmer to go to the farm and do more works old variety? Result: YES, hybrid variety increases system's demand for more labour and as level of even semi-mechanization is zero all this extra labour is manual. As farmers do not have funds to use only paid labour, some of the labour may be unpaid child labour. Highly Likely.

Finding 9: What about marketability? Can farmers sell all of hybrid cocoa beans at market price? Result: NO, because bean size of hybrids, especially during light crop is smaller than that of old variety so they have to sell them at discount? 

Finding 10: Do farmers have any incentive from the market for adopting hybrid cocoa variety? Result: NO, purchasing clerks do not ask to pack hybrids separately as there is no separate, higher price for hybrid.

Finding 11: Why there is no market price incentive for hybrids? does hybrid cocoa not make chocolate tastier? Result: YES, farmers do think that by producing hybrid cocoa they help to make chocolate tastier but there is no reward for this to them.

Finding 12: Does hybrid cocoa replaces forests or old and dead cocoa trees? Result: 51% of farmers used hybrids to replace old, usually totally unproductive trees but 47% of farmers planted hybrid cocoa on "free lands"

Summary:

What encourages planting hybrids?

What discourages planting hybrid?