The Future of Farming Begins with Young Farmers in Kenya
Future Farmers begins with a one-acre demo farm in Kagio, Kenya, where everything is an opportunity for experimentation and growth.
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West and Central Africa have strong rural economies set within some of the world's largest forest expanses. The Congo Basin spans eight countries, contains the world's second largest contiguous forest, and boasts abundant biodiversity and natural resources. It also provides food, water, and shelter to some 75 million people.
Seventy percent of the world’s cocoa comes from West Africa, where cocoa cultivation is a way of life reaching back for generations. Most of the cocoa throughout the region is grown by smallholder farmers who struggle not only with economic hardship, but also with the effects of climate change—hotter temperatures, unpredictable rainfall, and a shift in growing seasons.
Sustainable agriculture and community forestry are powerful strategies for conserving the abundance of natural resources in West and Central Africa. In addition to our work to conserve the forests of the Congo Basin, we partner with farming communities to build climate-resilient, sustainable agriculture landscapes.
Future Farmers begins with a one-acre demo farm in Kagio, Kenya, where everything is an opportunity for experimentation and growth.
We're helping farmers increase their incomes and conserve a precious ecosystem.
UTZ Certified and Solidaridad have been partners in a cocoa programme in Ghana since 2010 with the collaboration of producer groups, licenced buying companies, traders and non-governmental organisations. They aim to improve smallholder cocoa productivity, incomes, working conditions and the environment. The programme started with training, then added inputs. The groups were certified for the […]
Deforestation in the tropics is a significant cause of global climate change (Murdiyarso, Hergoualc’h and Verchot 2010). Where land conversion is fueled by commodity agriculture, it is imperative to engage farmers in climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices that include forest conservation. For smallholder cocoa producers in Ghana, increasing on-farm carbon storage and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) […]
The study highlights the need of improvements, both possible and necessary. The revised UTZ code of conduct approved in June 2014, already addresses some of these areas of improvement. Gender and inclusiveness – Women and youths represent about half of the work force on cocoa farms and yet the report found they were not being […]
This study by COSA evaluated the performance on key sustainability indicators in the 2010 and 2012 cocoa production years for UTZ certified farmers in two districts in Ghana. The 2010 baseline of UTZ Certified farmers was taken before they became certified. The study was commissioned by UTZ Certified and Solidaridad to learn what aspects of […]
This report evaluates the effectiveness of the Cocoa Improvement Program (CIP), implemented by IDH, UTZ and Solidaridad between 2008 and 2012. This program brought together key players throughout the value chain, including farmers, traders, processors, chocolate brands, supermarkets, NGOs and governments. Their joint efforts have brought sustainability more to the forefront in the cocoa supply […]
More than120,000 cocoa farms in 11 countries have achieved Rainforest Alliance certification, covering an area of nearly 500,000 hectares (1.24 million acres), and with recent commitments by Unilever, Mars, Kraft and others to source Rainforest Alliance Certified cocoa, these numbers are almost certain to increase. The program’s exponential growth has prompted the Rainforest Alliance to […]