() Towards safe and sound cocoa production in West Africa.
Vos, J.G.M.1, Page, S.L.J.1, 1 CABI Bioscience, Egham, Surrey, UK
ABSTRACT- In order to reduce the use of pollutants in agricultural production, various international conventions are looking to reduce hazards to farmers and environmental impact (Rotterdam, Stockholm, Basel convention etc). This paper endeavours to assess hazardous pesticide phase-out implementation problems in the case of cocoa in West Africa. Cocoa in West Africa is a smallholder crop and major export commodity. There are two major pests of cocoa, black pod and mirids, which are managed by farmers through cultural practices and, if their economies allow, pesticide applications. Focusing on Ghana, the paper summarises expected problems with phase-out of the more hazardous pesticides that are currently registered for use on cocoa. A summary is given of available non-chemical options of cocoa pest management as well as new developments. The paper concludes that WHO Class I pesticides can be phased out from cocoa production in Ghana as Class II and III pesticides are available against the major pests. However, more time will be needed to effectively replace WHO Class II pesticides through phase-in of the various less toxic alternatives, which are currently under development but not yet widely available to farmers. In addition, smallholder cocoa farmers will need to be able to access information and knowledge transfer channels to become better informed managers of their farms, whereas other stakeholders in the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) network will need to re-focus current strategies. As such and in general, a long-term process of re-education and re-organisation farmer support systems should be considered as a way forward for smallholder farmer groups to ultimately benefit from pesticide phase-out initiatives as well as compete more successfully in the global economy.
Key words: smallholder cocoa farmers, west africa, hazardous pesticide phase-out, pesticide alternatives