NORTHERN LOWLANDS OF ASB-CAMEROON BENCHMARK AREA

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NORTHERN LOWLANDS OF ASB-CAMEROON BENCHMARK AREA

• ASB-STCP/IITA Scenarios Development Workshop
• Proposal for comments

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Background

• Northern lowlands of ASB-C B. area strongly rely
  on cocoa production for income generation, and
  local populations being supported, since 2001, by
  the USAID-funded Sustainable Tree Crops Program
  (STCP) to develop and adopt sustainable cocoa
  agricultural practices.

• Overall goal of STCP to improve productivity
  and livelihoods of small-holder cocoa producers
  in selected countries in West Africa, and pilot
  activities conducted at many sites in Cameroon,
  Côte dIvoire, Ghana and Nigeria. A secondary
  goal is to improve pest and disease management,
  to improve quality and to reduce dependence on
  pesticides, which can affect human health, damage
  the environment and can disrupt
  biologically-based management systems.

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Background

• STCP has adopted a holistic approach, considering
  the entire cocoa cropping system, which is
  critical to cocoa production both in terms of
  sustainability and productivity. Cocoa farmers
  produce and manage a range of crops which provide
  food and complement income from cocoa, including
  plantain, cocoyam and vegetables as well as shade
  trees.

• ASB plays an important role in this process since
  STCP activities heavily build upon the already
  acquired ASB field-grounded knowledge of the
  dynamics and resilience of the current land use
  systems in Cameroon, as well as upon the
  expertise of ASB partners in the field.

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Purpose

• Workshop designed to identify opportunities for
  strengthening sustainable cocoa production in one
  of STCP sites in the northern lowlands of
  Cameroon.

• Workshop aims identifying possible priority
  actions to be integrated into STCP activities for
  the coming five years.

• Workshop aims providing all stakeholders
  involved in the cocoa sector in Nkometou with
  innovative platform to integrate
  visions/perceptions of problems/constraints
  associated with cocoa production in a
  land-constrained situation, and conciliate
  divergent interests.

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Purpose

• Workshop's results will lead to the formulation
  of a draft STCP priority actions plan for the
  coming years in the area. Likewise exercises in
  other STCP sites could lead to proposals for
  multi-stakeholder participatory
  training/development programmes which could be
  linked in order to strengthen this regional
  initiative.

• Participatory exercise will also provide a
  building stone for integrated future adaptive and
  collaborative management strategies of forest
  resources in the area.

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Workshop activities

• Workshop will be divided into four main groups of
  activities
• Plenary sessions
• Keynote presentations session background
  information
• Working group activities
• Field visit

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Timeframe
Workshop will take three days and shall be
conducted before the beginning of the next cocoa
season in Cameroon (i.e. ideally between March
and April).
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Core team

• Plan is to hold a three-days multi-stakeholder
  workshop at the Nkometou site.
• Core team will comprise Gwendoline Nyambi and
  Jean Tonye (IRAD), Martine Ngobo and Stephan
  Weise (IITA), William Mala and Chimère Diaw
  (CIFOR)
• all being researchers involved in the ASB
  programme and having worked together in a very
  constructive way for almost six years now.

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Workshop participants and communication

• Cocoa farmer (cooperatives) representatives
  from selected cocoa producer groups
• STCP-Cameroon representatives
• Local government representatives
  (administrative, Ministry of Agriculture and
  Ministry of Environment and Forests)
• STCP regional team
• Cocoa pest and disease management experts
• Donor representatives.

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Indicative Budget

• For this scenarios development Workshop, 8,500
  are budgeted from which STCP/IITA will contribute
  to about 75.

• Costs for the Workshop would include travel
  costs of (STCP regional) workshop participants,
  accommodation and food, correspondence,
  photocopying, secretarial support during
  workshop, report production, distribution and
  consumables.

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Indicative Budget

• Coordination of the Workshop and participation
  by STCP national/regional experts as well as the
  participation from Government representatives,
  correspondence, report production and
  distribution will be covered by STCP/IITA
• but participation by rural cocoa farmers and
  Cameroonian resource persons, as well as
  participants lodging will need to be funded by
  the ASB-ICRAF SGP (2,100).

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Table. Budget outline (all in USD)
SOURCE STCP/IITA Contribution STCP/IITA Contribution REQUESTED REQUESTED TOTAL
ITEM In-kind Finance In-kind Finance

Staff time X X X 0
Materials X X ?? 0
Operational costs X X 0 0
Travel 0 0 0 2,100 gt
Other X X
TOTAL 2,100 8,500