Climate change is undermining the importance and sustainability of cooperatives as important organizations in small holder agriculture in developing countries. To adapt, cooperatives could apply carbon farming practices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance their business by increasing yields, economic returns and enhancing ecosystem services. This study aimed to identify carbon farming practices from literature and investigate the rate of application within cooperatives in Uganda. We reviewed scholarly literature and assed them based on their economic and ecological effects and trade-offs. Field research was done by through an online survey with smallholder farmers in 28 cooperatives across 19 districts in Uganda. We identified 11 and categorized them under three farming systems: organic farming, conservation farming and integrated farming. From the field survey we found that compost is the most applied CFP (54%), crop rotations (32%) and intercropping (50%) across the three categorizations. Dilemmas about right organic amendment quantities, consistent supplies and competing claims of residues for e.g. biochar production, types of inter crops need to be solved in order to further advance the application of CFPs amongst crop cooperatives in Uganda.
MULTIFILE
Banana is an important commercial fruit crop for smallholder farmers in Arba Minch, southern Ethiopia. However, its sector is experiencing many constraints and limited attention given to productivity and marketing. Therefore, this study was conducted to analyze the banana value chain in order to identify constraints on productivity and marketing, and possibilities of improvements towards a sustainable value chain in Arba Minch. Data were collected through a survey, key informants’ interviews, and focus group discussions. Different analytical and statistical tools were used for data analysis. Results describe actors, supporters, and influencers of the existing banana chain. The current banana chain has three different distribution channels in Arba Minch. The channel that connects with rural consumers has the highest value share for farmers while the channel that includes traveling traders has the lowest value share for farmers. The marketing cooperative channel has an intermediate value share for farmers in the chain. Poor agronomic practice, diseases, pests, and climate change were the major constraints for the banana yield while limited market information, lack of cold store and refrigerated trucks, poor post-harvest handling, lack of alternative markets, and weak capacity of cooperatives were the main constraints for banana marketing in Arba Minch. Economic, social and environmental indicators have a moderate sustainability performance within the Ethiopian context. The chain has an advantage in terms of profitability, employment, emission of air pollutants and constraints in terms of coordination, value share, profit margin, market diversity, product and market information, transportation, waste management, and safety and hygiene.
MULTIFILE
Kumasi and RokitScience contribute to increasing the ownership and income of cocoa farmers, with an emphasis on women. Kumasi has a successful history of developing and marketing cocoa juice, which aims to keep as much income as possible with the farmer. RokitScience has been involved in the creation of the Rokbar: a "bean to bar" empowering chocolate bar that is marketed and made entirely by women. Kumasi and RokitScience started setting up a cocoa-fruit-lab at the cocoa-cooperative COVIMA in early 2021 in Ivory-Coast, in collaboration with Beyond Beans Foundation/ETG and Döhler and financially supported by the Sustainable-Trade-Initiative (IDH). The goal is to support the cooperative, which is led by women, with the establishment of circular cocoa juice and chocolate production and in this way increase the income of the members of the cooperative. The cocoa pod contains cocoa beans embedded in cocoa pulp. This pulp is sweet and juicy and partly needed for cocoa bean fermentation for flavor development. Residual pulp can be used for new products like drinks, marmalades and more. The collaboration in the cocoa fruit lab created momentum to try-out a more circular approach whereby the extraction of juice was linked to a shorter fermentation period of the beans, influencing quality features of both the beans and potentially the chocolate. However, to optimize the production of juicy beans further and find a market for this (and potentially other) products requires further testing and development of a value proposition and marketing strategy. The main question of Kumasi and RokitScience at Hanzehogeschool Groningen and NHLStenden Hogeschool Amsterdam is: What is the effect on the quality of beans and chocolate if fermented after the extraction of juice? How can this be optimized: comparing ‘cocoa of excellence’ fermentation and drying to traditional post-harvest practices and how can we tell the world?
