OFI, GIZ launch climate-smart cocoa project to support farmers
ECUADOR – OFI has partnered with Rikolto, an international NGO, and the German Development Agency Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) to launch a low-carbon agriculture project with cocoa farmers.
The project aims to support farmers in mitigating and adapting to climate change’s impacts on cocoa production.
Paula Andrea Rueda Peña, sustainability manager at OFI Ecuador, said: “By introducing this low-carbon agriculture approach in our own sustainability programs and those we deliver for our customers.
“We’re supporting smallholder farmers to innovate the way they manage their farms to boost cocoa productivity and helping them on a path towards achieving a living income”.
She added that the launch supports the aim of their overarching sustainability strategy, which is to drive climate action and positive change across farming communities.
According to OFI, around 1.7 million Ecuadorians dependent on cocoa are threatened by climate change’s impacts, with approximately 60% of cocoa farmers relying on cocoa as their primary source of income.
The partnership seeks to address the impact of unpredictable weather conditions on growing cocoa by training 2,800 farmers in climate-smart agriculture.
This will support farmers in creating more resilient livelihoods and increase the efficiency of cocoa production.
The project will include implementing agroforestry, a regenerative farming approach that enables cocoa to grow alongside other plant species.
The technique can help farmers improve cocoa yields and provide additional income from other planted crops while sequestering carbon and promoting biodiversity.
Additionally, the partnership has organized 600 tailored coaching sessions to deliver training. The farmers—of whom at least 20% will be women—will be taught to integrate sustainability practices and agricultural standards into existing farming approaches.
Fourty thousand plants of the rare and native Nacional cocoa variety will be produced for distribution and housed within an organic cocoa production community nursery.
OFI’s AtSource sustainability management system will gather insights from the project, enabling best practices and learnings to be shared with national authorities to help inform the country’s climate policy.
Ralf Buss, project manager at GIZ AgriChains Ecuador, commented: “Global problems such as climate change and the loss of biodiversity can only be solved together with the involvement of different sectors and stakeholders. Strategic alliances between the public and private sectors are of fundamental importance here.
“In this way, innovative projects can be jointly developed and implemented that drive a transformation towards low-emission agriculture and improve the climate resilience of food and agricultural systems, which will also benefit Ecuadorian cocoa producers. This leads to greater sustainability in the global cocoa supply chain.”
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