From 2014 to 2015 ECOTOP conducted specific training for women on behalf of “Biopartenaire” and 2016/17 on behalf of Barry Callebaut in the surroundings of Yamoussoukro, Diegonéfla, Ouragahio, Duékoué and Lacotá. Women are mostly in charge of food production and responsable for new cocoa plantations during the first 3 years, when food crops are cultivated between the young cocoa trees.
Land preparation is commonly done by slash and burn of savannah like areas or young fellow secondary forest or bushland. Therfore the areas cultivated are mostly degraded and crops are under a high presure of infestation by weeds.
A survey conducted at the end of a 4-year Dynamic Agroforestry project with 50 trained cocoa farmers in Ivory Coast in 2015 about the most important innovations learnt during the project phase is as follows:
| Rank | Most preferred farming techniques by farmers |
|---|---|
| 1 | Non-burning practice for land preparation |
| 2 | Planting in windrows where organic matter originated from mowed native grass (e.g. Panicum maximum) as slashed fallow is accumulated in rows. |
| 3 | Planting in rows |
| 4 | Permanent biomass production using natural regeneration of tree and bush species and Mexican Sunflower (Tithonia diversifolia) for mulching |
| 5 | Pruning techniques in cocoa |
