The initiative will promote access to soil specific, tailor-made fertilisers and provide technical assistance to guarantee proper usage and ensure maximum impact of the fertilisers applied.
The fertiliser formulas are specific to cocoa but need to work in conjunction with Good Agricultural Practices (GAP). The consortium will support independent monitoring and impact-evaluation at farm level.
Michiel Hendriksz, ADM Cocoa’s director of sustainability, said: “This sector-wide soil health initiative is important to sustain the supply of cocoa for years to come. Cocoa trees in certain regions have suffered for decades from under-nutrition, preventing the farmers of today from obtaining optimum yields.
“Projecting it to a human body, in these depleted soils, it’s not just daily vitamin supplements that are needed to make them healthy, but it is also the basic food itself that is required by cocoa to grow and flourish. Organic matter should also not be forgotten as physical texture and water retention are important factors as well.”
The next stage of the initiative will target the broader West-African region.
Source: ADM Cocoa
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