Improving the well-being of cocoa farmers

PPDC - Projet de Production Durable de Cacao Certifié – Market Oriented Promotion of Certified Sustainbable Cocoa Production

The PPDC project is an alliance of public and private-sector partners that aims to improve the well-being of smallholder cocoa farmers in Côte d'Ivoire. The project encourages the production of quality cocoa through the application of sustainable agricultural practices according to an internationally accepted standard (the Rainforest Alliance Sustainable Agriculture Standard). Farmers can raise their income, professionalize their farm management, improve health and education of their families and workers and protect the environment.

The private-sector partners are Kraft Foods, one of the world's largest food and beverage companies, and Armajaro Trading Limited, a cocoa and coffee trading company. The public-sector partners are the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

The local project management works jointly with the Ivorian national extension service, Agence Nationale d'Appui au Développement Rural (ANADER), and the Sustainable Tree Crops Program (STCP) of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria.