Pro-Planteurs II

Professionalisation of farmers and their organisations in the cultivation of sustainable cocoa

Background

The agricultural sector accounts for around 22% of economic output (services 49% and indus-try 29%). Côte d'Ivoire is the world's largest cocoa producer. Around 1 million smallholder farmers cultivate cocoa, which provides a livelihood for around a quarter of the population. However, the poverty rate in cocoa regions is sometimes over 60%, which also leads to malnutrition and abusive child labour.

Côte d'Ivoire

Côte d'Ivoire is one of the fastest growing economies in Africa.

The country is the world's largest producer of cocoa, one of the continent's most important exporters of coffee, cashew nuts, palm oil and rubber and has a well-developed service sector by regional standards.

The PRO-Planteurs Project

PRO-PLANTEURS is a joint project of the German Initiative on Sustainable Cocoa (GISCO), the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL), the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Ivorian Coffee-Cocoa Council (Con-seil du Café-Cacao). During the project period from 2015 to 2025, PRO-PLANTEURS seeks to professionalise 30,000 family farmers and their organisations. The project aims to provide opportunities for women in particular to achieve a better income and nutritional basis for their families in order to have a positive impact on living conditions. After the successful implementation of a first project phase, a five-year follow-up phase started in June 2020. The progress of the PRO-PLANTEURS project is regularly monitored and adjusted as needed.

Project Goals

Cocoa producing households in the project region improve their economic living conditions and contribute to the conservation of natural resources. To achieve this goal, PRO-PLANTEURS is supporting the professionalisation of 30,000 farmers in Côte d'Ivoire and their cocoa cooperatives in the period between 2015 and 2025.

In the second project phase from 2020, the project focuses on the following result areas:

Strenghtening farmers’ organisations through training and accompanying advisory services to improve their internal organisation
Improved farm management through training courses in order to improve their cultivation techniques, enable investments and promote diversification and nutrition with aspecial focus on women
Improve cooperation in the value chain through a fund that co-finances and co-implements projects of the members of the German Initiative on Sustainable Cocoa
Support joint learning and innovation through dialogue between project partners and target groups of the project

Political Partners

Ministère del'Agriculture, du Développement Rural et de la Production Vivrière (Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Food Production)

Project Partners and Coopertions

The German government, represented by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and BMEL
German cocoa, chocolate & confectionery industry
German food retailers