csa recommendations for cocoa in ghana

Climate-smart Cocoa Adaptation Practices for

Smallholder Systems in Ghana

SUPPORTED BY COCOBOD/CRIG

Patrick Adjewodah CCAFS Project

March 9, 2016

• Climate change and climate variability for cocoa in

West Africa

• Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security

(CCAFS) program

• Project goals

• Project consortium members

• How we propose to work

• Initial results of climate change exposure mapping

• Final thoughts


• Introduction

• Context of the study

• Methods/Approach adopted

• Climate change- farmers’ perspective

• Innovative measures

• CSA recommendations/farmer feedback

• Enabling environment for CSA adoption

CSA Recommendation for smallholder

systems in Ghana

Outline of presentation


West Africa


(CCAFS) program

• Project goals




• Final thoughts

Introduction

CSA RECOMMENDATION FOR SMALLHOLDER SYSTEMS IN GHANA

SUPPORTED BY

COCOBOD/CRIG

• Climate change has implications for cocoa and the livelihoods of farmers.

• The CCFAS intervention:

•Climate risk and impact gradient study (Bunn et al., 2016).

•Climate smart cocoa: Adaptation practices for smallholder systems in

Ghana(Adjewodah et. al., 2016).

• This presentation relates to the latter of the above studies: aimed at

identifying CSA adaptation measures for cocoa along the impact

gradients defined by Bunn et. al., 2016.


West Africa


(CCAFS) program

• Project goals




• Final thoughts

Context (what are farmers adapting against/what can we

change?)

CSA RECOMMENDATION FOR SMALLHOLDER SYSTEMS IN GHANA

SUPPORTED BY

COCOBOD/CRIG

•Cocoa requires specific conditions

for optimal production: •rainfall

• temperature (soil and air),

•light intensity,

•air humidity,

•Wind

•Three impact zones: TZ, AZ & CZ.

•The principal objective of the work

was to identify CSAs for the 3

impact zones.

Methods used: Step 1: Desk Study (what do we already know):

• Research findings by relevant institutions in Ghana and elsewhere were examined.

• Information of the river basin systems and on the forest reserve systems of the cocoa belt (FC/WRC/NCRC, other NGO.)

Step 2: Interviews and consultations (what do

the experts/farmers think?)

• One-on-one engagement/consultation of experts and value chain actors (i.e. CRIG and IITA scientists, KNUST, etc) in the cocoa sector.

• Group discussions with farmers in each of the communities included in the assessment.

Step 3: Field assessment (seeing is believing)

• Direct observations of cocoa farms and research/demonstration plots.

• Identified any unique innovative measures deployed in the system to inform the CSA decisions and investment recommendations outlined in the report.

Methods

• Step 4: Key stakeholder workshop (What is the stand point of CRIG scientists)

• A one-week consultative workshop in Sept. 2015 at CRIG Tafo to review provisional list of CSA recommendations:

• Attended by CRIG and CGIAR scientists, policy makers and experts from the Cocoa Board. Also present were cocoa value chain actors and participants from NGOs active in the cocoa landscape.

Methods cont. (Step 4)

Step 4: CSA validation and field verification (what do farmers think)

• Three CSA validation workshops (involving farmers and extension workers) and CSA verification sessions were held were held in each of the 3 climate impact zones

• The objective of the workshops and field verification sessions among other things was to validate the updated list of CSA recommendations along climate impact zones, as well as obtain the feedback of smallholder cocoa farmers and technical officers on the updated CSA recommendations.

• The lead farmers and extension workers returned to their various associations and constituencies and provided their members with feedback from the workshop and obtained comments on the CSAs discussed at the workshop, which were passed on to the project team.

• LBC affiliation: Touton/PBC, Abrabopa, Ecom Agro (Amajaro), Fine Flavor Cocoa, Youth in Cocoa, RA Cert. UTZ etc

• Total farmers engaged: 1,000 +

Step 4 cont.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE IMPACT ZONE

Coping Zone

• High temperature

• additional precipitation in the wet season

• Strong winds

Adjus.Zone

• High temperatures in the dry season

• Uneven distribution of rainfall- more precipitation in the wet season

• Strong dry seasons in some years

• Torrential rain with strong winds

• Average to good cocoa soils

Tran. Zone

• High dry season temperature

• Prolonged dry season

• Low dry season precipitation

• Annual precipitation may go up

• Below average soils

FARMER PERCEPTION OF CLIMATE CHANGE

Transformation Zone

• Drought

• High heat and intense sun shine

• Wilting of cocoa

• High seedling mortality

• Hardening of the top soil

• Intermittent rainfall

Adjustment Zone

• Inadequate rainfall

• High temperature

• Longer dry seasons and short rainy seasons

• New emerging cocoa parasitic weeds and pests.

• Uneven distribution of rainfall

• Strong winds

• Patchy and highly localized rainfall events-

Coping Zone

• Occasional wind

• Reduction in the amount of rainfall in the wet season

• High dry season temperatures

• Flooding of cocoa along Akobra river

IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON COCOA

Temp.

• Stomatal closure leading to reduced photosynthesis; wilting of leaves; smaller bean sizes; changes in pest and disease dynamics; high seedling mortality

Torrential .

Rain

• Tree damage, damage to flowers; increased fruit fall, roots exposure as topsoil is washed; moldy beans; fungal infection, lodging of shade trees/cover crops

Prolonged Rain

• Flooding, more flowering but will lead to flower abortion due to lower photosynthesis; mould contamination of beans; changes in pest and diseases dynamics; moss, nutrient loss through leaching and runoffs, reduced bean size

Drought

• weaker trees; wilting, high seedling mortality, tree mortality; susceptibility to pest damage

CSA RECOMMENDATIONS/FEEDBACK FROM FARMERS

Transformation Zone:

• Adopt drip irrigation

• Provide optimal shade (50%)

• Provide quality shade (evergreen spp)

• Introduce drought tolerant varieties

• Conserve riparian buffer zones

• Transition to other cultivars

•According to farmer accounts, the hybrid varieties have a shorter life compared to the Amazonia variety and begin to die after 25 years.

•Spacing at 3 x 3m is not good for TZ: view of the high mortality among seedlings and mature cocoa; cocoa canopy gaps; uneven age among the trees.

Wilted cocoa under poor quality shade

Farmer feedback:


West Africa


(CCAFS) program

• Project goals




• Final thoughts

FARMER INNOVATIONS

MAINSTREAMING OF CSA PRACTICES FOR COCOA SUPPORTED BY COCOBOD/CRIG

•

CSA RECOMMENDATIONS/FEEDBACK FROM FARMERS

Adjustment Zone

• Enhance access to improved planting materials

• Adopt grafting

• Enhance soil organic matter through the addition of compost and animal manure to supplement mineral fertilizer application.

• Provide shade with a combination of semi-deciduous and evergreen species

• Diversify mature systems using Dioscorea species, and ginger Zingeber officinaleies and other broad leaves:coyam, the sweet potato and egussi lemon Cucumeropsis mannii to help conserve moisture and increase humidity.

• Conserve soil moisture through mulching with plantain pseudo stems and leaves in establishment phase of cocoa

• Enhance biological control methods, including releasing beneficial insects and providing them with a suitable habitat (e.g. Red Ant Occuphylla )

AZ_Some observations

Conserve soil moisture

• Apply cover crops to enhance soil moisture and resilience against drought. Integrated into the soil during the dry season to prevent competition with cocoa for the limited soil moisture. Cow pea, sweet potatoes, pumpkings should be considered.

• Flemingia macrophylla and Mucuna pruriens have been found provide positive effects in cocoa systems.

FARMER INNOVATIONS/FEEDBACK

• Proposal to mainstream grafting was accepted with reservations: lack of requisite tools and skills, cost to farmer.

• Recommendation to adopt composting and application of compost tea when transplanting seedlings was accepted by farmers with caution: access to inorganic fertilizer, require time and lots of organic material.

• Farmers complained about lack of access to COCOBOD approved agrochemicals: suggested government should subsidize and make the products available on the market for farmers to purchase it when they need it; products should be subsidized given to the LBCs to distribute. COCOBOD's role should be monitoring and tracking the distribution.

ENABLING ENV./ FURTHER RESEARCH

• Issues to resolve (facilitate CSA among farmers)

• Tree tenure reforms

• Address bottlenecks of the GoG input support program

• Landscape land use planning-IWS, forest conservation, etc

• Optimal shade levels for cocoa in the different ecological zones

• Optimal spacing of cocoa for the different climate zones

• Development of pest tolerant varieties of cocoa

• Fertilizer application rates for the different AEZ of the cocoa belt

• Fertility status of cocoa soils

• Integrated weed management for the different climate zones

• Decease tolerance varieties

• Research into cropping systems along the impact zones

• Temporary shade management along the impact zones

• Potting media for nurseries


West Africa


(CCAFS) program

• Project goals




• Final thoughts

END


•

CSA RECOMMENDATION FOR SMALLHOLDER SYSTEMS

IN GHANA

csa recommendations for cocoa in ghana

Environment