STCP - IITA

STCP Newsletter
S U S T A I N A B L E T R E E C R O P S P R O G R A M
Issue No. 5 Published by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture December 2003-January 2004
STCP GHANA IMPROVES FFS
FACILITATOR'S MOBILITY
Commuting to and from farmer field school (FFS)
communities by STCP facilitators has been a great
challenge since the start of FFS in July 2003. Facilitators
have to walk an average distance of 10 kilometers to
conduct a FFS. This phenomenon results in some
facilitators having to travel a day ahead of the scheduled
field school day. The associated inconvenience for
facilitators and their families cannot be over emphasized.
To resolve this problem and boost the morale of
facilitators, the STCP coordination office has prefinanced
26 bicycles valued at ¢ 12 million (US 1,380) to
its 26 facilitators. Facilitators are repaying by monthly
deductions from their allowances over a six months
period.
The presentation of the bicycles was done by the Pilot
Project Manager - Isaac K. Gyamfi in Kumasi-Ghana in
November 2003 with tremendous media publicity and
coverage. The project manager stressed how the STCP
FFS effort is transferring modern skills in integrated crop
and pest management to cocoa farmers in order to boost
production and productivity while reducing production
cost through effective and efficient agronomic practices.
He stressed how the STCP initiative is complementing
the effort of the national government in improving cocoa
extension in Ghana through the establishment and
strengthening of community based institutions for
extension service delivery.
Mr Kwaku Appiah Danquah (a facilitator) thanked STCP
for its ingenuity in providing a convenient means of
transport and the general support to cocoa development
in Ghana.
STCP-Cameroon
Socio-economic analysis of the marketing of cocoa
in the forest zone of south Cameroon
Astudy was undertaken to analyze the cocoa
marketing system after the liberalization of the
market in the forest zone of south Cameroon.The
results of the analysis showed important institutional
changes in the system, with a redistribution of the
roles between the various operators of the sector. The
transfer of responsibility in cocoa marketing from the
State towards the private sector, proved insufficient to
entirely satisfy expectations of the producers and the
various operators. Moreover, the producers encounter
real problems of adaptation to the new system, face
enormous difficulties in funding their exploitations,
getting agricultural inputs, conducting phytosanitory
plant health fight and selling their production.
Additionally, access to information on the market
situation remains problematic. All this generates, in the
later years, a considerable reduction of the quality of
the cocoa, which has as a perverse effect, the loss of
competitiveness of the Cameroonian label at the
international market. Much more, following permanent
fluctuations of the cocoa prices at the world market
and the producers being abandoned to themselves,
one observes a drastic reduction of the incomes of the
farmers and of their standard of living.
An analysis of the market structure shows a
dominating role of private operators in the distribution
chain, in spite of the fact that these operators remain
very badly organized. The cocoa market of the zone,
although competing, is affected by many distortions
that hinder operations.By observing the shapes and the
level of concentration of the cocoa market, it is
therefore necessary to operate institutional and
legislative reforms if one wants, in the medium and
long term, to solve the multiple problems which local
producers face and to ensure a correct operation of the
cocoa markets.
Photo 1: Some STCP-Ghana facilitators with their newly
acquired bicycles.
Reported by Denis P. Folefack (University of Yaounde/IITA-
Cameroon)

Eye Witness Stories!
ELAT (CAMEROON):
The Farmer Field School (FFS) of ELAT village
(south of Yaoundé) had 23 participants during the
2003 training cycle. After the cycle’s closure (in
December), the facilitator organized a round in the fields
of the 23 participants, in an individual way, to observe
the degree of application of the techniques learned at the
school sessions. She recorded some impact stories:
• A farmer-participant passed from 46 sachets of
fungicides applied last year to 18 sachets this year on his
3 hectares farm. Contrary to the other FFS participants
who tried out the school techniques on 100, 200 or 300
trees in their fields, he applied these techniques on his
entire farm; carrying out he says "one of best harvests in
terms of quantity this year with a good remainder of
fungicides at home".
• Another farmer, also of the same school stated:
“I have carried out fungicide treatment just once after
having applied the FFS techniques in a sub-plot of my
farm instead of 8 times as in the previous years”.
(Reported by Simon Bassanaga, STCP-Cameroon)
AKATANIASE (GHANA):
Hanna Owusu and Dominic, both facilitators,
established their FFS in Akataniase in June 2003.
Farmers saw the usefulness of their training and carried
the news around. Madam Margaret Boaye who lives in
Koben benefited from the training and recounts her
experience as follows:
“My husband and I have a-three-acre cocoa farm
established six years ago.We have been doing our best
in managing the farm but have not been able to harvest
a bag of cocoa from the farm.I requested Hanna to go
along with us to the farm for diagnosis and subsequent
prescription of a remedy.
We observed that: there were a lot of chupons all over
the farm, a lot of trees per stand (3-4 trees/stand),
thining has not been done and lot of termitaria in the
farm.
Hanna discussed the problems identified in the farm
with me and we decided to do some field
exercises.We worked from 9.30 am to 13.30 GMT to
cover half acre farm.We cut the chupons, reduced the
number of stems to one each, removed all the left-over
diseased pods on the trees. My husband could not do
the maintenance because he thought he would be
causing harm to the farm by reducing the population.
After the day's work he agreed to continue with the
rest of the work”.
Information reaching Hanna stated that there are a lot
of flowers and cherelles of which they are hoping for
an increase in yield. The in-law has therefore invited
her to organize a field school in the village. She is
willing to attend the FFS to enable her to harvest more
to take care of her family.
BONTOMURUSO (GHANA):
Achieftancy dispute divided the villagers of
Bonomuruso into two distinct camps. Members of
both camps did not want to sit together in the same
class of a Farmer Field School proposed for the
village. Through persistent education, they realised
chieftancy does not provide income to villagers.
Some registered to participate in the FFS and with
time, the others joined them. Now the two factions
have been brought together by the FFS and tensions
have eased dramatically in the village. Some of them
have been able to train other farmers like the case of
Auntie Grace who has trained two farmers on how to
prune and thin their farms
Reported by Sylvanus K. Agordorku (STCP-Ghana)
STCP GOT A GOOD GIFT FOR THE NEW YEAR FROM ONE
OF THE MAIN COCOA FUNDS IN COTE D'IVOIRE
The STCP Pilot of Cote d’Ivoire signed a 500,000 dollars
(273,8 millions CFA F) convention with FDPCC, one of
the main cocoa Funds of the country, over a period of 12
months. Almost 200,000 dollars out of the total amount
of the convention will be handled directly by IITA/STCP.
The convention aims at contributing to the funding of the
activities already initiated by the STCP Pilot Project,
mainly the Farmers Field School and technology Transfer
activities. FDPCC’s main interest for this first phase of the
pilot activities is on the FFS and the cocoa farms
regeneration.
The convention was signed by Mr. Theophile Kouassi
(Executive Secretary of FDPCC) and Robert Yapo
Assamoi (STCP Pilot Project Manager) on December 9,
2003, in the STCP Pilot Project office (Photo 2). The
signature ceremony was largely covered by the Ivorian
main media (television, Radios, Press, etc).
Photo 2: Executive Secretary of FDPCC (on the right) and
STCP Pilot Project Manager (on the left) during the signing
ceremony.
Reported by Robert Yapo Assamoi

STEERING COMMITTEE SATISFIED
The Regional Steering Committee of STCP held its annual
meeting in Accra on October 12, 2003 to initiate
discussion on the emerging achievements in Year One of
the STCP Pilot Phase and review the workplans for Year
Two. The 16 Steering Committee members, who included
the National Network Coordinators of the 5 STCP countries,
were supported in their deliberations by resource persons
from industry, trade, producers, donors, and international
institutions.
A new round of FFS will start between January and
March, with emphasis on ensuring high quality and
monitoring the impact of farmer training. Schools will
be implemented in an action research mode to develop
best bet practices. The new year will kick off with a
regional evaluation and training workshop for master
trainers and supervisors (January 7-16) followed by
national level post-mortem workshops for facilitators.
The Committee was satisfied with the progress of the
program, particularly also in the area of technology and
knowledge dissemination. A key outcome was the agreement
by all partners of STCP to assist in the identification
of additional national and international resources to secure
the continued implementation of the STCP Action Plan.
Reported by Dr. S. Weise (STCP Program Manager)
2003 Farmer field schools wind down as
preparations are made for a new cycle of
schools
One hundred and sixty farmer field schools (FFS)
initiated by STCP pilot projects in Cameroon,
Nigeria, Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire are preparing to wind
down activities and graduate their first classes. FFS
improve cocoa farmers' knowledge and decision-making
capacity through discovery-based learning (Photos 3 and
4). During the first year of field schools, the focus has
been on training of facilitators and validation of the
curriculum. The FFS curriculum covers the following
topics: IPM, cocoa agronomy, post-harvest management,
regeneration, agro-ecosystem analysis, economic
analysis, child labour and non-formal education. FFS in
the four countries have trained approximately 4260 cocoa
farmers since May and most will officially end their cycle
by December. To enable 2003 participants to benefit
from the full curriculum, 'remedial' sessions will be
offered periodically during 2004. In all countries, the FFS
program received an overwhelmingly positive response.
Photo 4: Disease zoo exercise by FFS participants, Cote
d’Ivoire, September 2003.
In 2004, field schools will focus on a few key
production constraints, namely, disease and pest
management, regeneration and post-harvest
management, with slightly different emphases by
country. A focused curriculum will improve the costeffectiveness
of the FFS approach, thereby making it
more amenable to scaling up.
In Year two (2003-2004), the curriculum will include a
second social issue: HIV/AIDS awareness. Surveys
will be conducted among FFS graduates to assess the
impact of farmer training.
Reported by Dr. Soniia David (STCP-Participatory Extension
Specialist)
Photo 3: Training of trainers workshop, Cameroon, August
2003.

Nigerian STCP
Stakeholders Meet
ANigerian Sensitization Meeting for the Sustainable
Tree Crops Program (STCP) was held at IITA on
Friday 25 October to discuss the use of spatial data for
the project and to facilitate discussion among various
stakeholders. About 20 participants attended, including
STCP staff, local partners, IITA scientists and
representatives from the United States Geographical
Survey (USGS).
The workshop was opened by Dr Chris Okafor, who
welcomed all participants and provided an overview of
the scope and purpose of the STCP pilot projects. Chris
Legg then presented information on IITA's use of
geographic information systems (GIS) and global
positioning systems (GPS) for the purposes of collecting
geo-spatial data, and the possibilities for its use within
STCP. Discussion followed on activities related to cocoa
production and spatial data collection within Nigeria, and
how information technology could be used to improve
information flow between farmers and markets.
In the afternoon, USGS representatives, Eric Wood and
Michael Cohen, shared examples of similar projects
which successfully utilized information technology, and
then discussed STCP experiences in spatial data
collection and dissemination with special focus on the
pilot project in Cameroon. The day closed with a dialogue
on current issues and challenges facing stakeholders, and
possible next steps for the Nigerian pilot project in the
Akure area (Ondo State) were outlined.
Lesley Abraham, Communication and Information Services,
IITA
About STCP
The Sustainable Tree Crops Program (STCP)
constitutes a coordinated and innovative effort
made by farmers and producer organizations,
industry and trade, national governments, research
institutes, the public sector, policymakers, donors
and development agencies to facilitate the
improvement of smallholder agricultural systems
based on tree crops in West and Central Africa.
Collectively, this coalition of partners, have shaped
consensus around four common interests and
concerns. They include: 1) promoting the production
and marketing of quality tree crop products, 2)
improving market access and income for small-scale
producers, 3) creating systems that are
environmentally friendly, socially responsible, and
economically sustainable, and 4) developing an
integrated Action Plan initially targeting cocoa,
cashew nuts, and associated tree crops, in
Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea and Nigeria.
The goal of STCP is to improve the economic and
social well-being of smallholders and the
environmental sustainability of tree crop farms of
West and Central Africa.
CONTACTS:
This is the quarterly Newsletter of the Sustainable
Tree Crops Program for West and Central Africa,
produced by the Regional Office in Yaounde,
Cameroon. The STCP Management would welcome
any contributions/suggestions.
E-mail: stcp-wca@cgiar.org
Fax:
Mail:
(+237) 223 74 37 OR
STCP Regional Office, c/o IITA Cameroon,
L.W. Lambourn & Co., Carolyn House,
26 Dingwall Rd, Croydon CR9 3EE,
England.
www.treecrops.org
Also Nigerian STCP at “AGRIC FAIR”
The STCP Nigeria pilot project participated in a one-day
agricultural fair hosted by IITA and USAID at the IITA
Station in Kubwa (Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Nigeria)
on Friday 21 November 2003.
The fair included an exhibition and an interactive
discussion session. During the exhibition, over 200
visitors were at the STCP stand. These included the
representatives of the Federal Minister of State for
Agriculture and the Minister of the Federal Capital
Territory, the agricultural officer of USAID,Dr. Andrew
Levin, and the representative of IITA's Director General all
who presented addresses at the opening ceremony.
Farmer groups from within and outside of the Federal
Capital territory, representatives of the National
Directorate of Employment, and members of the press
were also present. Visitors to the STCP stand were
informed of the project's activities on cocoa in the Ondo
State with emphasis on the approach that is being
used and its applicability to other crops and location.
During the discussion session chaired by IITA's Dr
Patrick Komarwa, contributions from participants
showed a need for farmer groups to be strengthened to
enable them influence policy environment that will
facilitate the uptake of new technologies developed by
research. This suggests that the experiences of the
STCP pilot project in the strengthening of Tonikoko
Farmers Union as a union and in the dissemination of
technology through the Farmer Field Schools could find
application with farmers of other crops and in other
locations in the near future. STCP's representative at
the fair, Dr Innocent Okuku also granted an interview on
the project activities to pressmen.
Reported by Dr. Innocent Okuku (STCP-Nigeria)