Despite producing around 45 percent of the world’s cocoa beans, an estimated 87 percent of cocoa-growing households in Côte d’Ivoire earn below a living income. With hundreds of thousands of families relying on the crop for their livelihoods, this has created widespread food insecurity and surges in illegal and environmentally destructive activities like gold mining and logging.
Leading companies are exploring a tool to help solve this problem and boost farmer incomes, and that is cash transfers. Cash transfers can be provided directly to farmers with or without specific conditions; there is a strong body of literature showing that both have positive impacts. The Rainforest Alliance has implemented this approach successfully with some of its other partners and has seen firsthand that these payments have positive impacts on farming communities. Impacts including greater food security, improved access to healthcare, and increased economic resilience. Cash transfers can help farmers cover school expenses, pay for medical bills, or simply create a financial cushion for life’s unexpected emergencies without having to seek costly loans at high-interest rates.
Recognizing the value of this approach, The Hershey Company is teaming up with the Rainforest Alliance, CARE International, PUR, and other local partners for a five-year project that is developing scalable, sustainable models for on-farm investment that can be mainstreamed to benefit the entire cocoa sector across Côte d’Ivoire. The ultimate goal is to improve livelihoods and the environment throughout the country by helping farmers embrace regenerative agricultural practices.
Location
Côte d’Ivoire
Period
2023-2027
Partner communities
In the first year, this project has benefitted 1,500 cocoa farmers. By the end of the project, we will expand the program to 5,000 farmers. The Rainforest Alliance will also work with several cooperatives to help strengthen their capacity to provide relevant services for their members as well as their overall administrative capacity.
Project objectives: incentivizing the adoption of regenerative farming practices
This project will work to improve cocoa farmer livelihoods in Côte d’Ivoire through four key activities:
- Conditional cash transfers
With the help of our partners, the Rainforest Alliance will distribute approximately US$300-600 per household per year to approximately 5,000 cocoa-farming households over the course of the project, ensuring an equitable distribution between men and women farmers. Cash transfers will be conditional upon adoption of regenerative agricultural practices—such as cultivating crops amid native shade trees or Integrated Pest Management—in years two and three of the program. The Rainforest Alliance will provide and oversee training in these practices. - Sustainable farm management observation and training
Using the Rainforest Alliance Adoption Observation Program, cocoa farmers will be evaluated on 21 regenerative production practices—such as Integrated Weed and Pest Management, pruning, soil management, and agroforestry—and then guided toward an individualized farm investment plan that strategically outlines what needs to take place every year, including the necessary investment and resources. - Long-term livelihood strategies
The Rainforest Alliance will work with cooperative management to identify additional livelihood strategies that farmers can use to supplement their incomes. These opportunities could be anything from growing additional food crops to cattle rearing or beekeeping, depending on the area’s market for such products. We will also collaborate with CARE International to support Village Savings and Loan programs for farming communities. Together with CARE, we will also regularly consult with government officials through meetings and workshops to address systemic economic issues that go beyond the farm gate, such as gender and youth inclusion, child labor and forced labor, deforestation, encroachment in protected areas, and more. - Monitoring and evaluation
To evaluate our impact and success, the Rainforest Alliance will monitor farmers’ incomes, their spending of cash transfers, and their outcomes using regenerative cocoa farming practices.
Desired impacts: improved livelihoods and restored landscapes
By the end of the project, we aim to achieve the following outcomes:
- Increased household income for 5,000 cocoa farmers and their households
- The adoption of regenerative cocoa farming practices for 5,000 farmers, leading to improved farm profitability and resilience
Funders
Implementing partners
- CARE International
- PUR
- 100WEEKS
Rainforest Alliance contact
Brice Polnaud Declemence Nehou, Senior Project Manager
