Researchers, civil society organizations, and private and public sector stakeholders from Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria converged at the Annual CocoaSoils Week 2022 at IITA headquarters, Ibadan, from 9 to 11 May. The event aimed to facilitate expert discussions on progress towards closing knowledge gaps in cocoa production and outline the priority areas for the program’s next phase.
It also aimed to mobilize partners’ support to facilitate the adoption of the program’s Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) recommendations by smallholder cocoa farmers for increased cocoa productivity in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria.
Director of Research for Development (R4D), Central Africa and Natural Resource Management, Bernard Vanlauwe, commended the project team for the success of the program’s first phase.
According to Vanlauwe, the program receives continued interest and support from global stakeholders in the cocoa sector as it transitions into the new global initiative Excellence in Agronomy (EiA). “We are looking forward to getting the transition managed as efficiently as possible,” he said.