UPL Empowers Over 92K Farmers In Sustainable Agriculture
Exceeds 2022 Cocoa and Forests Initiative (CFI) goals
UPL
Some 92,242 farmers in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire have been empowered by global agri-inputs giant UPL to engage in more sustainable, equitable and profitable agriculture.
UPL Limited, a global provider of sustainable agricultural solutions, says it also invested more than $355 thousand in 2022 to help create a more sustainable and profitable cocoa farming system.
These were contained in the company’s annual progress report under the Cocoa Forest Initiative (CFI), which revealed UPL exceeding all targets across each reporting category.
The company is the only agri-inputs firm to be a signatory to the World Cocoa Foundation’s Cocoa and Forest Initiative (CFI), a global partnership of 36 leading cocoa and chocolate companies that work together to combat deforestation and restore forested areas.
In all, more than 730,000 farmers were trained in Good Agricultural Practices (GAPS) under the CFI 1.0 campaign to generate better yields on cocoa farms.
Out of that figure, UPL was directly responsible for the training of 16,450 cocoa growers in Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs), such as the use of sustainable crop protection inputs to increase yields and incomes.
With more productive and profitable farmers and better livelihoods, it is hoped farmers will have less incentive to encroach on forests to plant cocoa.
In addition, over 240,000 farmers were empowered with financial products, ensuring farming communities have access to finance to invest in their livelihoods.
CFI-implementing companies are reported to also support 4,500 Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs) – with a total of 109,000 members in 2020.
Again, UPL contributed to expanding access to schemes to over 16,110 farmers, enabling them to save, invest in their practices, and uplift their livelihoods.
Additionally, the company invested in the training of 8,322 individuals in women’s empowerment projects and activities in the 2022 implementing year.
Jai Shroff, Group CEO of UPL, said “I would like to thank all those who invested their time and hard work to ensure we reached more farmers than ever before. Working together with farmers, who are at the heart of what we do, we are making sustainable cocoa a reality.”
Shroff added, “We look forward to continuing our Reimagining Sustainability mission to uplift cocoa communities, transform global food chains, and safeguard the environment.”
Looking ahead, UPL will work with more cocoa communities, with the aim of reaching an additional 45,000 farmers with training in GAPs and stewardship methods and 270,000 with access to financial products and services.
“We are proud to have surpassed our 2022 targets and to have brought positive impacts to more growers,” stated Hubert Ehouman, Cocoa Lead for West & Central Africa of UPL.
Ehouman pledged that “As the only agri-inputs signatory to CFI, we are committed to using our unique position to expand these positive impacts to benefit more farmers, empower more communities, and advance the sustainability of the cocoa sector.”
The CFI is a public-private partnership between the World Cocoa Foundation, the Governments of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, and 36 leading cocoa and chocolate companies, that aims to combat deforestation and restore forested areas.
The first campaign dubbed CFI 1.o spanned a period of 3 years, from 2019 to 2022.
UPL has announced the launch of its CFI 2.0 Action Plan for the next three years (2022-2025) which outlines ambitions to help foster a sustainable and prosperous cocoa sector.
In a press release copied to Cocoa Post, the agri-input firm said it is looking forward to reaching an additional 45,000 farmers across Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire with training in GAPs and stewardship methods, and 270,000 with access to financial products and services.
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