Toms Sustainable Cocoa Sourcing Programme

Toms Sustainable Cocoa Sourcing Programme

How we keep on fighting for sustainable cocoa

To continue the positive trend that we have set in motion since 2006, we in 2017 developed and implemented Toms Sustainable Cocoa Sourcing Programme.

As main partner in this we decided to continue working with SMS – an organization previously known as SourceTrust – which was also a partner in the Danida projects.  

Toms Sustainable Cocoa Programme is being implemented in 4 districts covering 112 communities with 4,520 farmers in the two cocoa growing regions of Ghana: Western and Brong Ahafo.

In continuation of the former projects’ scope and results, the scope of Toms Sustainable Cocoa Sourcing Programme is:

  1. Further promote productivity and sustainable cocoa practices
  2. Continue the positive development in the eradication of child labour and children’s schooling
  3. Attract more young people into cocoa farming

Farmer training

Access to agronomic knowledge and high quality materials is crucial to promote productivity and sustainable cocoa practices.

Our farmer education programme has been developed during the past 10 years to reach every farmer in our programme.

This requires extensive and close cooperation with a large number of regional and local farmers, who are educated to be local teachers at village level. Our partner SMS (Sustainable Management Service) recruits and trains Farmer Trainers in good agricultural, environmental and social practices. Farmer training is carried out by Farmer Trainers across all communities in groups of no more than 30 farmers. The farmertraining focus on three items:

  • Good agricultural practices, soil fertility management and social practices related to agriculture 
  • Locally relevant adaptation strategies such as soil and water conservation, shade management, and rehabilitation of old cocoa farms. Farmers are encouraged to adopt environmentally friendly production practices as part of this process to improve overall ecosystem health, increase habitats and their connectivity and enhance biodiversity within the landscape.
  • How to to improve their business skills and be able to identify and start additional business venture. Coexistence of both approaches can provide a buffer against climatic variations and economic shocks, thus conferring stability and sustainability to cocoa farmers‟ livelihoods.

Making improvements possible

A part of our programme focuses on improving the farmers' access to products and services necessary to enhance cocoa productivity and make farmers livelihoods more sustainable.

Improoving cocoa farmers' livelihood requires way more than knowledge, training and business planning. A lot of framework conditions on regional and local levels have to be changed as well.

Three initiatives improve the farmers' framework conditions and support them in their fight for better living conditions:

  • Improved access to quality planting material, labour hiring, and help for rehabilitation of trees
  • Access to safe and affordable savings and loans (combined with education in business management) 
  • Encouragement to use the "village savings and loans method", developed by CARE.

Protection and education of next generation

When we started our work in Ghana a decade ago, the lack of trained teachers and the lack of good school facilities were identified as the main obstacles for getting the children in school.

In order to safeguard the children in the cocoa societies and ensure them the support and education they deserve, we need not only to change the financial possibilities of their parents and the ethical norms for child labour in the societies. We need to enhance the schools and the teachers - and the local safety net for the children in need for extra support.

Toms Sustainable Cocoa Sourcing Programme continue the work on these obstracles, and at the same time we:

  • Continue our development of child labour monitoring and remediation structures in the cocoa communities in partnership with community based organisations. Here local farmer groups are trained in childrens rights and how to handle local issues and support all children of the village to get care, support and education.
  • Empower the youth as agents of change in the cocoa sector by making cocoa farming and businesses in cocoa growing communities an attractive and economical career choice for them. This in partnership with MASO programme. (Read more above).

What about the other parts of Toms' corporate responsibility?

On this page we have described how we work to live up to our responsibilities at one point along our value chain. Read here about our overall approach to our corporate responsibility and how we work for responsibility in other areas of our business as well.

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