“Cocoa production is becoming less attractive to the younger generation”
Dr. Lucien Diby works at the World Agroforestry Centre and contributed to the recent World Food System course in Côte d’Ivoire. In this interview, he explains the challenges facing cocoa production in Cote d’Ivoire and how the Vision for Change project strives to rejuvenate the cocoa sector with a focus on farmers.
The question of how to feed the world, while considering human health, the environment, and social wellbeing, is one of the defining challenges of our time. In order to understand the world food system and find ways to deal with its complexity, 26 graduate students and young professionals from around the world were in Côte d’Ivoire to take part in a two-week (27 January - 10 February 2018) intensive Summer School course organized by the World Food System Center at the ETH Zurich, in collaboration with the Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Côte d’Ivoire (CSRS).
What are the current main challenges facing cocoa production today?
There are many challenges across the cocoa value chain, but the most critical lay at the production level. In West Africa where about 70% of cocoa is produced, a viral disease transmitted to cocoa trees by mealy bug vectors is currently one key challenge yet to be addressed. Deforestation and climate change are also major challenges faced by the cocoa sector. Indeed, the expansion of cocoa production in the search of new fertile lands and better rainfall has resulted in massive deforestation in the main producing countries. In the meantime, climate change is drastically reducing the suitable areas for cocoa production. The last but not the least main threat to cocoa production is the low income earned by farmers from the cocoa business that prevent them to reinvest in their farms, that in turn negatively affect the productivity. As a consequence, cocoa production is becoming less attractive to the younger generation.
Lucien Diby Interview
Lucien Diby and students talk with farmers at organic cocoa plantation. (Image: WFSC)
Listening to farmers at an organic plantation. (Image: WFSC) Lucien Diby talks with farmers in the local organic cocoa cooperative. (Image: WFSC)
What messages have you shared with the students during the “Cocoa Value Chain Deep Dive”?
I gave an overview of the cocoa sector in Cote d’Ivoire and described the main interventions of ICRAF in the sector. I explained to the students the importance of the crop for the country and some critical challenges that need to be fixed for a sustainable cocoa value chain.
Tell us about the Vision for Change (V4C) project.
Vision for Change is a joint initiative of the American chocolate company Mars Inc. and the Government of Cote d’Ivoire to address some of the challenges mentioned above in order to rejuvenate the cocoa sector with a focus on farmers.
V4C is implemented in the South-West region of Cote d’Ivoire by the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and Mars Inc. in collaboration with many other national and international partners.
V4C uses improved technologies (cocoa hybrids and clones, cocoa companion trees, sustainable management of soil, pest and disease) to demonstrate model sustainable cocoa farming approaches. The project invests also in community-based infrastructure (education, health) and diversified income generating activities for youth and women to strengthen the well-being of the communities living in the project areas.
What do see for the future of cocoa production?
I see a bright future for cocoa! Everyone likes chocolate and many people love it, and cocoa is the main ingredient for chocolate. It is therefore in the interest of nobody that cocoa production stops just because we have not been able to do it in a sustainable way. I am confident that all the actors will join forces more strongly than what they do now to appropriately address the production challenges for more chocolate for the generation to come.
World Food System Summer School in Côte d’Ivoire: Food Systems in Transition
27 January - 10 February 2018
Find further information on the course here
Also, follow the journey of these students on external page Facebook (@ethzWFSC) and external page #wfsceducation.
About Lucien Diby
external page Lucien Diby is an associate scientist at the World Agroforestry Centre. He obtained his doctorate in a joint program of ETH Zurich and the University of Cocody, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. He is currently leading the sustainable management work of the Vision for Change (V4C) cocoa project in Côte d’Ivoire. He was a contributor to the recent WFS Summer School.
Course Information
World Food System Summer School in Côte d’Ivoire: Food Systems in Transition
27 January - 10 February 2018
The course is organized by the World Food System Center in partnership with the Swiss National Science Foundation Research for Development Project “Biophysical and socio-economic drivers of sustainable soil use in yam cropping systems for improved food security in West Africa” (external page Yamsys).
Funding
This World Food System summer school is being hosted in collaboration with the Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Côte d'Ivoire (CSRS), a lead member institution in the Yamsys project. This course is subsidized through the kind support of the SNF R4D program and the Mercator Foundation Switzerland.