Sustainability issues are urgent in cocoa production in Côte d’Ivoire. The cocoa sector continues to face deeply embedded, interrelated challenges around productivity; low income and working conditions; scaling up grouping and service delivery to farmers; negative environmental impacts; and a tight supply and demand relationship with recession and expansion affecting global market and farm-gate prices.
This report analyses the contributions of UTZ and the interventions of companies implementing UTZ certification with groups of farmers in Côte d’Ivoire. The outcomes analysed are increased yields, improved income, improved working and living conditions, and better environmental protection. UTZ initiated a certification programme for cocoa in Côte d’Ivoire in 2008. By 2012 the programme covered 189 cooperatives comprising over 44,624 cocoa farmers and partnerships with eight companies. In 2017 the programme had grown to 425 UTZ certificate holders comprising 330,000 farmers and seven partners (due to mergers).
In 2012, UTZ, IDH and Solidaridad commissioned WUR to determine the effects of the UTZ certification programme, starting with a baseline study. This report presents a follow-up with the results of the independent endline survey. To explore the expected pathway of impacts at farmer household level, changes at farmer group level, company and service provider were analysed using a mixed method approach, based on interviews in 2013 and 2017 with 944 and 426 cocoa farmers respectively, interviews and data from cooperative managers, UTZ and companies. Using a counterfactual, a statistical analysis and qualitative content analysis, comparisons were made of results for 2013 and 2017, of UTZ compared to non-certified farmers, and of farmers receiving different types of services and service packages, and varying intensity of services.
The results indicate that farmers do gain knowledge and implement good agricultural, social and environmental practices, with knowledge and implementation rates improving between 2013 and 2017, especially for non-UTZ farmers. However, knowledge and implementation rates are still low for both UTZ and non-UTZ farmers. Whilst implementation rates are generally higher than farmer's knowledge, barriers were found for fertiliser application and handling diseased pods.
The extent to which cocoa farmers implement good practices as a result of certification, training and other services, has been mixed and limited. UTZ certification plus service packages have not resulted in changing farmer practices to the extent expected. The intensity of training and services decreased over time, levelling out knowledge and implementation improvements. Non-UTZ farmers have also benefitted from training and services between 2013 and 2017.
The question of whether adopted practices lead to better lives, incomes, crops and environment was answered by looking at four main areas derived from the UTZ theory of change. Farmers receiving high intensity service packages are most impacted. UTZ farmers continue to have significantly higher cocoa productivity than non-UTZ farmers. Changes in productivity on a seasonal basis however are attributed largely to the weather. Over time non-UTZ farmers are catching up to similar yields as UTZ farmers. Farmers generally produce under potential, on average 480 kg/ha, indicating there is still room for major improvement. UTZ farmers had significantly higher net cocoa income per hectare in 2017 than non-UTZ farmers. Total cocoa income per household member/day for 2017 is similar for UTZ and non-UTZ farmers. Cocoa per capita incomes remain low, at USD 1.25 per day.
UTZ farmers have seen improvements in their lives, working and living conditions, whereas non-UTZ farmers have experienced fewer changes. UTZ farmers perceive improvements in water and soil, but non-UTZ farmers note few changes towards a better environment.
Positive spill-over effects were also detected, although not anticipated in the pathway to change, contributing to the impact of certification. Service packages appear to work, with specific packages ('agricultural training + one input' and 'agricultural training +pesticides and fertiliser' packages) being significantly associated with increased productivity and net cocoa income improvement for UTZ farmers.
Although the pathways to impact and change are largely confirmed, there remains a gap between what certification is expected to deliver and what it actually has delivered. Impacts have not been felt by all UTZ farmers, and the level of impacts have generally been marginal for crop productivity, incomes and the environment. Lessons learnt from this study are that:
UTZ certification alone has not led to impacts such as improving farmers' livelihoods beyond poverty levels and assuring social risk-free cocoa. One reason is that productivity and income increases are levelling off, with results suggesting that a ceiling has been reached as productivity increases for UTZ farmer plateauing while non-UTZ farmers are catching up to the levels experienced by UTZ farmers.
Confirming the theory of change, pathways to impacts were largely as foreseen: well-functioning cooperatives formed a vehicle to certification, providing packages of services to members. Training and adherence to the UTZ Code of Conduct generally is associated with better crops, incomes and environmental outcomes and knowledge is applied in practice. There were also unanticipated outcomes at producer and company level and the professionalisation of farmers and cooperatives; increased intensity and broader range of services alongside certification and increased farmer satisfaction with cooperatives. There appear to be positive spill-over effects as non-UTZ farmers come into contact with certified farmers, learn and adopt similar techniques to generate higher productivity and cocoa-related income. Certification has functioned as a vehicle to which services have been attached, enabling an increased intensity and broader package of services to be provided.
Recommendations:
1. Focus on topics that matter most: target interventions to match farmers' demographic, economic and farm characteristics, with tailored mixes of service packages that focus on farmers' specific needs and the most problematic practices relating to child labour, input use, shade trees and waste management.
2. Identify barriers and enablers to improve sustainable cocoa production and livelihoods: current incentives of certification and associated services are insufficient to motivate all value chain actors, requiring investments to close sustainability gaps and reinventing tools to sufficiently and adequately implement and diagnose and address sustainability gaps and underlying causes. This includes tensions of (over)supply and low prices which harm farmer incomes, risk mitigation and accessing more profitable value chains, and enabling access to credit.
3. Combine a high intensity package of Good Agricultural Practice training plus pesticides and fertilisers to have higher impact.
4. Engage with complementary sector level interventions, based on evidence of what works.
5. Facilitate the meeting of bottom-up farmer and top-down industry and government visions.
6. Take a transformational approach to provoke systemic change in the Ivorian cocoa sector.