Innovation in West African Smallholder Cocoa: Some Conventional & Nonconventional Measures of Success

Abstract

"Parallel surveys of cocoa farmers in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire in late 1994 permit a reexamination of the record on innovations for this important cash crop.Contrary to various pessimistic hypotheses, partial intensification is fairly widespread and on the rise, though adoption of the complete package recommended by research virtually nil. Nor do the systems appear blocked by the rarefaction of forest reserves. Yet not all innovations register the anticipated yield gains. Neither age nor schooling are determinants of adoption, and contact with extension only partially so. Rather, scale and migrant origin are key for pesticide use. By contrast, renewal (planting on non-forest lands) may be associated with resource-poor farmers in the initial stages."