Sat4Farming is developing and utilizing farm development plans for individual cocoa farmers with geodata
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SAT4Farming will support over a 200.000 Ghanaian cocoa farmers to increase their production, income and food security. For each farmer a Farm Development Plan will be developed, implemented and monitored. All to increase yields of smallholder cocoa farms up to 40% in the project period. The program is supported by Mars and large cocoa traders as Touton. Ghana is world’s second largest exporter of cocoa. Many cocoa farmers are poor because low productivity, trees are aged and highly vulnerable to pests and diseases. However, many farmers can increase their yields by informed individual advice and support. SAT4Farming started in 2018 with developing a digital service that prepares, manages and monitors Farm Development Plans for individual cocoa farmers. The service uses satellite imagery and digital tools to make the individual Farm Development Plans more accurate, impactful and affordable. Satellite data will determine soil conditions, vicinity of rivers or forests and plant conditions, all ahead visiting the farmstead. The offered digital service will also monitor Farm Development Plans more efficiency and in a scalable manner.
The primary target group for SAT4Farming services are smallholder cocoa farmers (average farm size 3.5ha) in five regions (Ashanti, Brong Ahafo, Eastern, Central and Western). SAT4Farming focusses especially on young and female farmers. Youth plays a key role in the future of cocoa, especially because >55% of Ghanaian cocoa farmers are older yet than 50 years. Special focus is given to women’s empowerment. Involvement of women in the design and use of technology is expected to strengthen their position in the cocoa supply chain and improve incomes.
SAT4Farming operates mainly in a B2B model with cocoa traders and farmers cooperatives as aggregators. They pay for SAT4Farming services on a per farm, per year basis.
The SAT4Farming consortium brings together seven public and private organizations, each with their own expertise. The project partners have worked together previously and are well aligned:
Lead partner:
Partners:
| Country | Ghana |
| Services | Crop management advice |
| Crops | CocoaRice |
| Target groups | Farmer (smallholders) |
| Project start | 2018 |