An environmental organisation,Panacea for Developmental and Infrastructural Challenges for Africa Initiative (PADIC-Africa) also known as Development Concern (DEVCON) has organised Farmers Field School, trained fifty nine Cocoa Farmers on forest degradation and sustainable management in Edondon community, Cross River State.
The two-day training which took place yesterday in Edondon community, Obubra local government area of the state with the theme; “Good Agricultural Practices for Cocoa Farmers”, was funded by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Global Environment Facility (GEF) Small Grant, with project titled “Developing Forest Economies and Sustainable Forest Management in Edondon”.
Addressing the participants shortly before the training, the Executive Director, PADIC-Africa, Dr. Martins Egot, said the training was aimed at getting the farmers to adopt intensified approach to reduce landscape degradation from forest clearing for cocoa farming.
He said this would increase cocoa productivity and income from cocoa by 30 percent and also geared towards building farmers capacity in cocoa production to reduce the rate of farm expansion into black bush.
According to him, the project major aim was to protect the forest of Edondon from further degradation through more effective rule enforcement and sustainable food production and to increase forest cover by 20 percent through more effective forest management system with more inclusive forest monitoring and rule enforcement.
Dr. Egot added, “this is also to increase women’s income by 20 percent, to be achieved through training on market gardening and planting of income generating tree crops like bush mango at the end of the project.
The resource person, an International Management System Manager (IMS) at Tulip Cocoa Processing Limited, McStephen Kembre, took the participants through the manual guided by the following content: Farm establishment, talking about steps to establishment and development; specific and basic criteria for selecting seedlings.
Other issues discussed were on Erosion control, Fertilizer application, Soil fertility, Integrated crop harvest handling, Productivity enhancement, Good social practices with highlights on “Child Labour”, the causes, protection and its objectives, Child participation, Child’s Rights and Forced Labour in relation to Cocoa Farmers and their farming practices.
Kenbre further took the participants on a Field Practical work in a Cocoa farm where concerns on the use of chemicals and fertilizer application were adequately addressed. Other aspects were on the appropriate time to spray certain chemicals and the use of improved cocoa variety.
Some of the participants commended the organisation and their funding partners for choosing Edondon Cocoa Farmers for the opportunity of benefiting from the training, which they said would add value to their already knowledge in forest conservation.
One of the participants, Mr. Akwa Otio, thanked the organisers of the training for providing a platform that would enhance cocoa farming in Edondon, noting that the exercise has increased his knowledge in forest protection and safe farming practice.
” I’m happy to be part of this training and i want to give all the thanks to the NGO, PADIC-Africa for the opportunity,it was really a good experience and i will put this practice in cultivating cocoa and protecting our heritage, the ‘forest’. ” Otio expressed.
Also speaking, a female cocoa farmer, Mrs.Margret Olory, said, ” i want to say a big thank you to the organisers of this training on how to protect the forest while cultivating cocoa. this will go a long to help manage my cocoa farm and it will benefit me, my family and the community.”
