May 2013 C&CI • Latin America • 27
provide microfinance loans to meet the urgent needs of producer families. The revolving fund was created with ‘seed capital’ (a sum of US$132,434) obtained from recovering a proportion of the value of goods supplied by the project and from voluntary savings by members. Some 1,200 ‘micro-loans’ averaging US$100 each, were disbursed under the project.
The main diversification activities carried out for the reconversion of coffee farms included:
n Training for coffee producers in the technical aspects of agricultural and livestock production through on-farm demonstration.
n Diversification initiatives also included replacement of 2,122 hectares of old or damaged coffee trees affected by El Niño with new improved varieties.
n Quality improvement of coffee for export included the establishment of coffee processing units (the construction of 643 tub tanks for fermentation and washing and 659 solar driers) in the provinces of El Oro and Loja.
n Promotion of husbandry to increase, at family level, the availability of protein sources for domestic consumption and additional sources of income from the sale of surpluses.
n Reforestation for environmental maintenance and commercial purposes.
The project promoted processing of primary products and joint marketing as a strategic means of improving the use of agricultural and livestock surpluses while adding value to primary production. Organisations for this component were formally established and are well organised. Beneficiaries all confirm their satisfaction with the support provided through the project and the possibilities that this had opened for them to sustainably increase/secure their income. The organisations started to commercialize (inter alia) their own processed coffee, making effective use of the processing equipment provided by the project.
Dissemination of results
The CFC says it believes that there is substantial potential for expansion/replication of the project to other coffee producing regions in Ecuador as well as abroad. In that regard it is anticipated that COFENAC will also prepare a ‘knowledge document’ in which the experience gained in this project would be usefully laid down, as a basis for new projects/initiatives for COFENAC/ANACAFE. An evaluation of the project may be undertaken in the near future to make a final assessment of the overall benefit and success of the project including a better ‘cost-benefit’ review of the overall funding of the project. In keeping with the norm for the Common Fund’s concept of multi-county sharing of project results, the project has been widely disseminated to interest groups within and outside of Ecuador through reader friendly publications in hard copy and electronic formats and several workshops involving local and overseas participants. C&CI
Breeding programme
enhances cocoa production Ecuador has a rich history of cocoa farming, and great strides are currently underway to enhance production and combat diseases in the country that together with Peru, is said to have the greatest level of cocoa genetic diversity in the world. Mars Chocolate, in partnership with the INIAP, the national research institute of Ecuador, is investing in an innovative cocoa breeding programme that will help develop more productive plants for Ecuadorian cocoa farmers and, as a result of the expertise developed there, the programme will also provide important knowledge for cocoa research institutes in other countries.
As part of the Sustainable Cocoa Initiative, Mars is working to develop and deliver disease-resistant, high-yielding cocoa planting material. It is also working with its partners on the ground to increase knowledge and create new research capabilities in Ecuador and other cocoa producing countries.
Strong, disease resistant cocoa plants are especially important in Ecuador, where cocoa has been hit hard by disease in the past. For example, diseases such as Moniliosis and Witches’ Broom destroyed 70 per cent of Ecuador’s cocoa production in the early 1900s, creating one of the greatest social and economic crises in the country’s history.
For the past 10 years, Mars has been working in Ecuador to develop new cocoa varieties and better technology to help combat disease and produce higher yields. Excellent results have been achieved in local farms. La Victoria is a new farm featuring two cocoa varieties developed by INIAP with support from Mars Chocolate and the US Department of Agriculture. Although the new varieties are of a type of cocoa called Nacional (with fine chocolate aroma characteristics and different from a highly productive clone named CCN 51), the new varieties build on the breakthroughs of former INIAP technician Homero Castro. Mr Castro developed CCN-51, an enhanced cocoa variety that is now used in 90 per cent of all new plantings in Ecuador. CCN-51, which is produced in more than 350 cocoa nurseries, produces higher yields, larger pods and more disease resistant trees. It is being cultivated using a very intensive, high-tech, agronomic model. One of the objectives of INIAP, with support from Mars Chocolate and USDA, is to grow cocoa varieties of the Nacional type (as those grown in La Victoria farm) but under an agronomic model similar to that used to cultivate CCN51.
In addition to the new varieties, which are outperforming CCN-51 in some areas and which, Mars claims, are nearly immune to Witches’ Broom, the company’s team is working to ensure that better nutrients and fertilisation are available – both of which have a significant impact on cocoa yields. The company is also fostering new cocoa planting under large public irrigation systems, as Ecuador is the main nation in the world where cocoa is irrigated by artificial systems. With cocoa production and demand on the rise again, said Mars (there are about 433,978 hectares currently in production), these new breakthroughs are especially promising for the country’s economy and for the industry’s future.
Juan Carlos Motamayor, Mars programme manager, shows the high number of pods on a 1.5 year old tree
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