©K. Boldt / FAO

Support for cocoa farmers in Madagascar kicks off

Next time you bite into a square of fairtrade chocolate, stop a moment to reflect on where your sweet treat has come from. About six million people around the world depend on farming cocoa for their livelihoods.

One of those cocoa-producing countries is Madagascar, the world’s fourth largest island. Renowned for its rich nature, its rainforest is home to many of the world’s rare species including ring-tailed lemurs, frogs and chameleons. It is also one of the poorest nations in the world and is currently facing a catastrophic drought as a result of the changing climate. This has been made worse by extensive deforestation – since the 1950s, Madagascar has lost over 40% of its rainforest which has been cleared to make way for palm oil production and agriculture.

Earning a living can be very challenging, particularly for indigenous farmers and smallholders. But thanks to the Syndicat des Organisations Agricoles (SOA Network) things are improving. Eight forest and farm producer organisations are members of the network, which covers districts in the northern region of Diana, the central regions of Bongolava and Analmanga, and the eastern region of Antsinanana.

The livelihoods of 1,254 indigenous households have been improved directly as a result of the network, which has strengthened entrepreneurship and business skills in the producer organisations, and is supporting them to adopt climate-smart agriculture.

One of these groups is the Union de Coopératives Lazan’i Sambirano (UCLS) in the northern region of Diana. UCLS is based in Ambanja district, and represents over 400 producers spread across 23 grassroots cooperatives. Between them they cultivate almost 140 plots of cocoa – equivalent to 240 hectares , an area slightly bigger than the city-state of Monaco in France.

UCLS joined the SOA Network in 2010 to help defend the price of cocoa together with other small producers. UCLS has gone from strength to strength, tripling the volume of cocoa it exports from 100 tonnes in 2019 to 200 tonnes in 2020. The origins of the cocoa beans they produce are now traceable from the plots where they grow to the containers where they are stored and they have been able to secure a better price for their farmers, which has a huge impact on their livelihoods.

Mr Anziz, 46 years old, is a cacao producer in Marosely Ambanj and a member of the UCLS Cooperative. He said, "For me, being part of the Cooperative has allowed me to sell my cocoa in larger quantities and for better prices. What’s more, thanks to support from the FFF, we have been able to establish cocoa nurseries for this year."

The cooperative has made a real difference to local communities. They have used their profits to install a new drinking water supply for the area, and have improved rural roads in the Ambanja district. They have also bought a shared truck and a tractor, as well as other farming equipment to help them with their cocoa production. For when the season is lean, UCLS have bought white rice to see them through the tougher months.

With support from the SOA Network, the cooperative is also diversifying their crop, so they are not wholly dependent on cocoa. This means that, should their cocoa crop be wiped out, they still have another crop to fall back on. They have been exploring growing aromatic plants including the herb basil, the medicinal plants vetiver and patchoulis, and citronella which is used for its oil. They are also supporting young people to set up their own enterprises – Madagascar has a very young population with almost half its population being under the age of 15.

The SOA Network will now receive further funding from the Forest and Farm Facility to carry on its work supporting cacao farmers in Madagascar. For this new phase of funding, their focus is to improve gender balance in the cooperative, strengthen their collective voice at a local and national level so they can actively participate in issues that affect forestry and farming, and support producers to improve their business development and market analysis skills. There will also be a strong emphasis on building knowledge in the practical matters of climate adaptation and mitigation and each organisation will develop their own climate resilience plan and strategy. Knowledge exchanges and mutual learning sessions will be at the heart of these activities, which will help strengthen a sense of ownership and community cohesion.