Smallholder farmers play an important role in the production of about 40% of the palm oil traded world wide. Despite their importance, it is still difficult for many farmers to gain access to global supply chains due to land rights issue, insufficient funding, poor access to markets and information, and a lack of training.
The joint project with Solidaridad focused on improving smallholder farmer’s knowledge of best environmental practices, and on agriculture that respects High Conservation Values (HCV) and natural forests. Since Côte d'Ivoire is a newer area of palm oil cultivation, the project focused on paving the way for more sustainable practices in the region by increasing opportunities for smallholder farmers to participate in sustainable palm oil production.
The feedback from the community clearly shows the success of the project: 90% of the community participants reported positive outcomes and increased knowledge from the training, while a local institutional partner, the Inter-professional Association of Oil-Palm Industry, (IAPH) now continues to model activities from the project by planting new trees in other palm-oil growing regions in the area.
