The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has launched a new project to promote sustainable cocoa and coffee production in Indonesia.
Collaborating on the project with USAID are The Hershey Company, Rikolto, the Indonesian government and PT Olam Indonesia – part of Olam Food Ingredients (OFI).
Climate change poses a threat to the future of coffee and chocolate in Indonesia, where many smallholders who grow these crops struggle to access the proper support to adapt to the conditions.
The Landscape Approach to Sustainable and Climate Change Resilient Cocoa and Coffee Agroforestry (LASCARCOCO) project is a joint investment from the partners of $8.2m. It aims to assist 6,500 cocoa and coffee farmers in increasing their yields by 25% while conserving 14,000 hectares of the watershed and riparian buffers by 2025.
It is one of six existing projects and $50 million of investment that USAID, OFI and other partners are jointly implementing to help farmers be responsible stewards of their environment.
LASCARCOCO will work towards improving sustainable livelihoods through training on Good Agricultural Practices and “climate-smart” agroforestry, where cocoa and coffee are grown alongside other income-generating crops.
It also aims to promote climate-friendly landscape management, build an evidence-based blueprint for scaling up agroforestry techniques and create transparent, traceable supply chains. Farmers will be registered on OFI’s app to provide “complete visibility” of the environmental and social credentials of cocoa and coffee from the project.
Ravi Pokhriyal, president and regional head of Asia at OFI said: “Smallholders are on the frontlines of the climate crisis. Without the right resources and inputs, they can’t grow enough to earn a living, and the world could face a shortage of the coffee and chocolate we all love.”
Pokhriyal said that the partnership demonstrates how the private and public sectors can unite to address the challenges.
He added: “For nearly two decades, we’ve collaborated with our customers and partners to deliver positive impact across the value chain in Indonesia, from supporting over 80,000 cocoa and coffee farmers in our programmes to co-creating on-trend products consumers in APAC will love from our processing facility in Indonesia and Singapore Customer Solutions Centre”.
© FoodBev Media Ltd 2024
