Coconut sector development project, report on the mission from 15th to 21st September 2004

This mission, concerning the CSDP (Coconut Sector Development Project) replanting component, was intended to assess intercropping systems with young palms, as part of the applied research component of the project, and to study the cultural practices of farmers taking part in the coconut start-up phase. This mission was used to take stock provisionally of the trials being conducted on the experimental sites at Eduma, Princess Town and Nyamebekyere, and to assess performance. These replanting trials have achieved the objective set for them, namely to show that with good cultural practices, notably those involving food intercrops, tree crop growth and precocity are improved. However, at 2 of the 3 sites, this result is dependent upon regular fertilizer applications in the first 4 years after planting. These trials have provided an agricultural frame of reference for the growth and precocity of the hybrid coconut palm disseminated by CSDP. During the mission, 21 smallholdings were inspected in the western and central regions. Agronomic indicators of growth and precocity were used on the farms to compare them to the reference trials. The results revealed considerable variability in the performance of these farms depending on the constraints to which they were more or less subjected: pest pressure, soil fertility, water stress, cultural practices, etc. Of the sample surveyed, 2/3 of the farmers ought to be able to achieve the production targets that will enable them to pay back their loans. For the others, it will be much more difficult. As regards the farmers' cultural practices, 90% intercropped food crops with their young coconut palms. For some, the aim was to meet subsistence requirements and to supplement income in the event of a surplus; for others, it was a substantial source of income. As CSDP support comes to an end (end of AFD funding), and at a time when some farmers have to start paying back their loans, new challenges are arising for continuing development support and helping farmers to overcome some of their constraints. There are also new challenges, in continuing targeted research actions, centred on diversification strategies which, for some, are barely beginning (coconut-rubber), but also in envisaging others (e.g. coconut-cocoa, coconut-pineapple). The first 2 rubber-coconut intercropping trials were visited during the mission. A trial protocol combining coconut and rubber was launched in October 2002, the planting design was set up in October 2003 at the Yedeyesele and Abura sites. At the end of the first year, substantial differences could already be seen between the two sites, associated with the cultural practices used by the farmers. (Résumé d'auteur