PRE-HARVEST APPROACH

Labor investment is a key driver of cocoa yields, especially pre-harvest tasks like weeding, pruning, fertilizing, and pest and disease management, when applied agronomically correct.

Current labor investment in West Africa is relatively low:

- comparing <400h/ha in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire against 800 h/ha in Cameroon 800h/ha and ~1400h/ha in Vietnam displays a clear and direct link with increased yields
- both Cameroon and Vietnam have higher cocoa yields 600 and 1600 kg/ha, respectively, than cocoa farms in West Africa

The comparison with Vietnam demonstrates that achieving high labor investment even with fewer workers per farm is possible (and on tendentially smaller areas).

Labor investment, especially pre-harvest labor is not the only factor influencing productivity, but it is clearly and directly linked to higher productivity. When Good Agronomic Practices such as weeding, pruning, management of pests and diseases as well as fertilization, are applied correctly and continuously, an increase in productivity can be expected. Also important to note is the percentage of pre-versus post-harvest labor investment, not only the total number of hours invested.

Intensifying the effort on the pre-harvest labor side is essential for a sustainable and high yielding cocoa production. Cocoa Horizons is targeting two crucial components to increase on farm productivity:

- Reasonable percentage of pre-harvest labor investment, i.e. 60-65%
- Ensuring at least 800/h of labor investment in total on the cocoa farm per season