Cocoa 
Value Chain 
Development

Environmental Responsibility and Climate Change

Unsustainable cocoa farming practices and monocultures have led to harmful impacts on ecosystems and are accompanied by challenges such as aging plantations and productivity losses. As a result, farmers face loss of income and degradation of the ecosystems that provide their livelihoods. In addition, monoculture production makes farmers highly vulnerable to shocks such as price fluctuations and weather events. Unpredictable weather patterns, shorter growing seasons, droughts, extreme temperatures and increased vulnerability to pests and plant diseases due to climate change pose increasing risks to smallholder farmers around the world.

To address these challenges, Swisscontact promotes environmentally responsible and climate-friendly practices to conserve or restore ecosystems, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and strengthen smallholder farmers' adaptive capacity to climate change.

Conservation and regeneration of ecosystems:

• Training on good agricultural practices (GAP) with strong focus on sustainable and climate-mart production techniques including improved soil and shade management, rehabilitation and replanting techniques, and integrated pest and disease management.
• Build capacity of farmers on integrated farm management, taking into consideration the entire production system.[CG1] 
• Increase resource use efficiency and prevent food losses through improved post-harvest handling and storage.
• Support cocoa farms to meet quality and sustainability standards for certification.
• Introduce eco-friendly technologies such as solar dryers.

Climate Change Adaptation:

• Training on good agricultural practices (GAP) focusing on the conservation and regeneration of the soil as well as nutrient and water cycle management strengthens the self-regeneration capacity of ecosystems making them more resilient to hazardous events and climate change.
• Introduce resilient varieties which are less vulnerable to climate change.
• Effective and integrated pest management methods are important as an increase in pest infestation is expected due to climate change.
• Enhance resilience and adaptive capacities of smallholder families through additional measures such as strengthening household financial management, access to finance and cultivation of food crops to improve food security and nutrition.

Climate Change Mitigation:

• Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions through improved soil management which increases the carbon retention capacity of soil.
• Efficient use of fertilizer and substitution of chemical fertilisers by organic fertilisers.
• Planting of shade trees or additional tree crops and providing training on agroforestry practices.