International scientific workshop on cocoa Agroforestry in Africa

• Participate in this workshop, which will be free of charge, on May 15 and 16, under the hybrid modality.

May 2, 2023. West and Central Africa are responsible for 71 % of world cocoa production, with an annual production (2013-2014) of about 3.1 million tons, 6 million hectares of cultivated area, and (assuming an average of 2.5 ha per family) 2.6 million smallholder farmers. Cocoa is mainly grown in monocultures in full sun or very light shade.

Currently, agro-forestry is widely promoted in cocoa cultivation in these regions of Africa to maintain high crop yields, produce timber, fruit and other tree products, conserve biodiversity and sequester carbon to mitigate climate change. However, to translate agro-forestry policies into practice, farmers, governments, chocolate companies and NGOs implementing agro-forestry initiatives need a definition of cocoa agro-forestry that can be used both to compare their activities and to measure progress towards clearly defined objectives.

To contribute to this need, INAFORESTA of CATIE (Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center), MAK'IT of the University of Montpellier, the Center for International Cooperation in Agricultural Research for Development (CIRAD)-UMR-ABSys, the laboratory of agricultural systems and engineering of West Lake University, the Marse International Union of Agroforestry (IUAF) ) are organizing a workshop entitled Cocoa agroforestry in West and Central Africa: from definition to innovation and implementation pathways.

The workshop will be held on May 15 and 16, free of charge and under the hybrid modality (face-to-face and virtual), through Zoom and based in Montpelier, France. The workshop aims to contribute to the debate on the definition of agro-forestry with cocoa and shed light on the necessary ways to massify the use of agro-forestry in sustainable cocoa production.

The first day, called Science Day, will be dedicated to cocoa agro-forestry science, while the second day, called Innovations and Applications Day, will be devoted to discussing how to incorporate cocoa agro-forestry into the initiatives of producers, governments, chocolate companies, certifiers and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) implementing agro-forestry projects in West and Central Africa.

Registration to be part of this workshop is open through the following link https://bit.ly/444sA8u.

The agenda and objectives of the workshop can be found at here.