This blog was originally posted on the website of Cocoa4Future
On 22 February 2024, a high-level delegation from the European Union’s (EU) Finance/Contracts unit (INTPA A6) in Brussels, led by Kris Engelen, Deputy Head of the unit, visited several cocoa farms in Azaguié as part of the Cocoa4Future (C4F) project.
Members of the EU delegation in Abidjan were also present.
It was a great opportunity for everyone to appreciate the activities of the C4F project in this area and to meet the cocoa farmers involved.
This visit was organised by Mr Jean Douzo, Agriculture – Rural Development – Environment Programme Officer at the Cooperation Section (EU Delegation in Côte d’Ivoire) and operational administrator of the C4F project. Accompanied by the C4F project coordinator, two PhD students, Marie Dago (ESA/INP-HB) and Juslin Koigny (Wascal/UFHB) and several cocoa farmers involved in the C4F project, the members of the EU delegation were thus able to better understand the targeted research work being carried out on the network set up by the C4F project in this area, where 10 cocoa farms, with a gradient of complexity, are monitored to assess their supply of ecosystem services and to study the disease linked to the Cocoa swollen shoot virus.
The visit was an opportunity for a wide-ranging discussion with cocoa farmers and PhD students about the work in progress and its benefits in terms of operationality.
Many thanks to Ambroise Nko and Jean-Luc Behou, respectively CEO and Director of SCOPP PPP PA, and to Mrs Salomé Douapo, Vice-President of the Côte d’Ivoire Association of Women Coffee and Cocoa Producers, for their fruitful discussions and sharing with the members of this EU delegation.