Remote Sensing

The Role of Space Technologies in Improving Africa’s Over USD 14.5 Billion Cocoa Market

Cocoa is one of Africa's most important cash crops and is crucial in several African countries' economies. However, Africa’s cocoa industry faces several challenges that hinder its growth and development. One of the most significant market downfalls is the need for more reliable and accurate data about the conditions of cocoa farms, health and growth, among others, making sustainability of the industry difficult. 

However, the African climate plays a crucial role in determining the productivity of cocoa across the continent, with a particular emphasis on West Africa. This region alone contributes to over 60% of global cocoa production. Cote d’Ivoire is the biggest cocoa producer, contributing around 38% of the world’s cocoa production.

For Ghana, the biggest cocoa producer after Cote d’Ivoire, the cash crop plays a vital role in its economy and is the most significant contributor to its foreign exchange. Furthermore, planting cocoa is essential in securing land rights in the country. As part of the customary land tenure systems in rural areas, cocoa farmers can demonstrate their traditional land rights and strengthen their authority over land ownership because of its long-term nature. Moreover, owning a cocoa farm secures access to a stable income source compared to other cash crops.

Challenges Besetting Africa’s Cocoa Market

In 2015, the African Development Bank reported that cocoa farmers are paid 6% of what consumers in advanced countries pay for chocolate compared to 16% in the 80s. Sadly, the value chain of chocolate production is ten times more valuable than Africa’s cocoa exports.

In a study titled “A Living Income for Cocoa Producers in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana”,  of the analysis carried out on 385 – 88,896 cocoa producers in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana,  30 – 58% earn below the World Bank extreme poverty line, and 73–90% do not make substantial income in the face of economic downtimes and recession.

Despite battling economic challenges, the climate change crisis threatens cocoa farmlands. At an alarming rate, the continent is dealing with the impacts of climate change even though it contributes 2 - 3% of the world’s greenhouse emissions. Yet, according to the “State of the Climate in Africa 2021 report”, the continent has warmed more than the global average since pre-industrial times. 

”Temperature increase, heat waves, extensive floods, tropical cyclones, prolonged droughts, and sea level rise resulting in loss of lives, property damage, and population displacement undermine Africa’s ability to achieve its commitments to meet the targets of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the African Union Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want, which outlines Africa’s path for attaining inclusive and sustainable economic growth and development,” commented H.E. Ambassador Josefa Leonel Correia Sacko, Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment at the African Union Commission.

Furthermore, some regions in West Africa will become unsuitable for farming cocoa. Aside from the increasingly warming climate impacting cocoa production, warm weather is also suitable for breeding diseases and pests capable of destroying hectares of cocoa farmlands and cocoa pods. The losses range between 30-44%. Other challenges include deforestation, knowledge gaps, poor technological access, lack of protection regulations, low financial support, etc.

From the Supply Chain

Significant threats to robust cocoa production and low productivity include diseases (phytophthora pod rot, cocoa swollen shoot virus (CSSV), monilia pod rot, etc.), degradation, climate change, pests, and wrong/high administration of pesticides, among others. Paradoxically, cocoa farmers resort to deforestation to mitigate these challenges to expand their cocoa tree plantations.

In other words, cocoa farming is one of the biggest drivers of deforestation. For instance, Ivory Coast has lost 70% of its forests due to cocoa farming since the 60s, consequentially battering thriving biodiversities and destroying water bodies (uncontrolled use of pesticides). Of the over 70%, 40% of cocoa production is from illegal farms, cheating licensed cocoa farmers of fair pay.

As a result, the system created a robust informal sector, making traceability of cocoa from illegal farms (driving deforestation) challenging to trace and hold accountable. However, in Ghana, Ecometrica, an organisation specialising in employing satellite data-based deforestation risk tools to monitor commodity crops, suppliers and sourcing areas, is providing a solution. 

In 2019, the Ghanaian government collaborated with Ecometrica to deliver accurate and updated maps and forest data that cocoa buyers can use to assess the impact of their efforts to combat deforestation in their supply chains. The partnership was a means of cementing the objectives of the Cocoa & Forests Initiative Frameworks for Action  (CFI), assented by Ghana and the Ivory Coast at the COP23 UN Climate Change Conference.

Even so, because planted cocoa trees are under a canopy of forests, satellite data alone was considered ineffective in efficiently monitoring all the cocoa farms. Thus, the Forests 2020 project, a significant investment by the UK Space Agency as part of the International Partnerships Programme (IPP), was established to create a land use map to restore up to 300 million hectares of tropical forests.

The map, one of the most precise cocoa production-based maps in the world, was created by the Ghana Forestry Commission using local expertise and satellite imagery from the Sentinel-1 satellite, optical data from the Sentinel-2 satellite, and machine learning technology. In addition, the map can detect cocoa produced from deforested lands.

Similarly, Airbus Defense and Space and Earthworm Foundation launched the Starling satellite monitoring platform to mitigate deforestation due to cocoa farming in Côte d’Ivoire. The app aims to aid the Ivorian government forest agency, Société de Développement Forestier (SODEFOR), to monitor the  Cavally forest, one of the last forested areas in the country, which could lose all its forest cover by 2034.

The Starling app uses Airbus SPOT 6 and 7 for consistent and comprehensive monitoring. All generated data is processed and homogenised with the platform, and with 94% accuracy, end users are alerted of activities within the forest to stop deforestation.

Saving Cocoas from Pests and Diseases

While the previous section discussed saving the cocoa industry from causing further environmental damage despite its value, this section will analyse other related causes destroying it.

As with any farmland, pests and diseases are challenges that, if not managed, lead to low productivity and significant losses. One such disease is the Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus (CSSV). In 2020, the Department of International Development (DFID) and the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) awarded  Certis Europe BV, Rail Vision Ltd., Rothamsted Research in the UK, and Positive Agro in Ghana a three-year grant to research ways of mitigating losses from the disease. 

Before the awarded grant, no dedicated product provided a lasting solution to the ravaging disease. To this end, Rail Vision’s platform technology (ARIES), based on mathematical models and software tools for satellite and drone imagery data analytics, will be employed to identify areas with CSSV presence and regions prone to future occurrences.

Furthermore, the group will incorporate factors such as canopy cover, plant diversity, chlorophyll level and tree density and prevailing infectious status, future risk of the cocoa trees being affected by CSSV, and data on plantation conditions to reduce the risks, while using satellite data and images alongside other methodologies.

Currently, trials in Ghana have shown promising results, encouraging partners to expand the solutions to other intended areas, directly impacting the cocoa industry and ensuring supplies match global demand, indirectly promoting socio-economic development in Ghana.

Nonetheless, climate change places another strain on the cocoa industry's productivity. Climate change contributes to difficulties managing pests and diseases and making the environment unconducive due to incessant rainfalls, droughts, floodings, wildfires, etc. However, numerous African countries are combining space data to curb the impact of climate change for an agriculturally resilient and productive future. 

Elevating the Cocoa Farmers

In increasing the cocoa industry’s productivity, the focus is mainly on cocoa because of its value. Nevertheless, improving the cocoa industry must be inclusive to ensure socioeconomic prosperity. As with any venture, accessing funds and understanding the proper farming practices are essential. One of the dark sides of being unable to access funds for cocoa farmers is to turn to forced child labour to meet demands, expand planting areas and make more money. On the other hand, equipping cocoa farmers helps increase yield, improve quality, promote sustainable farming, increase income, and empower them to negotiate better prices and access new markets.

Thus, as part of COP23, held in Germany, Cargill, a global food corporation, in its 2021 cocoa sustainability progress report, the company is driving the initiative to protect children’s rights within the community and monitoring forced child labour, providing cocoa farmers with stabilised incomes and access to fundings, in conjunction with other sustainable practices.

By equipping the farmers with funding and the proper farming knowledge, Cargill hopes to make the 2030 zero-deforestation cocoa industry possible by utilising GPS polygon maps (for transparency and traceability) and geospatial-based satellite data in places like Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana and Cameroon in Africa.

In the same vein, Farm Grow, through its digital platform and supported by satellite technology, provides cocoa smallholder farmers with insights and access to personal coaching to make personalised business plans and methodologies to increase productivity.  In addition, Farm Grow, in collaboration with Satelligence technological tools that utilise satellite imagery and artificial intelligence, ensures coaches are armed with the correct data to inform and encourage cocoa farmers to make strategic decisions. 

According to the World Bank, with Farm Grow’s geo-data-enabled precision agriculture service and technology platform, farmers, for example, in Ghana, can increase their cocoa yields from 400 to 2,000 kilograms per hectare in eight to ten years.

Another critical project placing interest in upskilling cocoa farmers is the Sat4Farming, launched in 2018. The project supports thousands of Ghanaian cocoa farmers and helps increase yield by 40%. In addition, the project harnessed digital technologies and satellite imagery to create personalised Farm Development Plans (FDPs) to assist farmers over seven years. Moreover, the project supports soil status, control of pests and diseases, nearness of rivers or forests, and plant health.

Recommendations

Monitoring Pests and Diseases: Space-based technologies such as remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can detect and monitor diseases and pests that impact cocoa production before they become severe. By analysing indices and other related data, researchers and relevant stakeholders can spot changes in cocoa health, indicating the presence of a disease or pest. In the case of the present disease, remote sensing and GIS  can also be used to map and track the spread to other cocoa and pick up a pattern, for example, changes in soil moisture and temperature. These strategies ensure relevant stakeholders can create an early warning system to help farmers optimise management methodologies, such as harvesting earlier or enacting a pest control system. 

For instance, Landsat 8 is an observation satellite that orbits the earth every 16 days and records nine visible light bands to help assess crop health, nutrient content, insect infestation, or moisture and utilises agricultural-based GIS tools such as EOSDA Crop Monitoring digital agriculture platform, interprets satellite data to advance precise farming and aid other aims.

Unfortunately, most cocoa farmers are rural smallholder farmers who need the skills to maximise the benefits of remote sensing. This is where the African governments and organisations must invest in knowledge transfers and training. In addition, facilitators must ensure training is developed with local partners to understand how to incorporate local languages, user-friendly tools, and customs, as the case may be. Furthermore, organisations must encourage technical support for rural farmers to adopt the technology as incorporated by Farm Grow. Organisations such as the Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD), Digital Earth Africa, and others are at the forefront of organising such training. They can quickly be partnered with to cater for rural smallholder farmers.

Providing Cocoa Insurance: Planning and implementing cocoa insurance policies ensures farmers have a safety net against unpredictable weather conditions and losses. In addition, when farmers know they are financially secure, it encourages them to invest in their farms and sustainable farming practices without adopting methods that lead to deforestation. Furthermore, It discourages volatility and stabilises the market, making it easier for farmers to make business decisions. For instance, Agritask, an agronomic intelligence and analytics platform which provides plot-based agricultural insurance services, ensures agricultural insurance companies and reinsurers use geospatial risk analysis to enhance underwriting, monitoring, claims management, and damage assessment processes.

In 2020, Agritask partnered with Hollard Mozambique to provide digital solutions to local stakeholders, offering crop insurance for farmers in their respective value chains for preparedness and rehabilitation endeavours. In another instance, the micro-agricultural insurance scheme “SUM Africa” based in Mali and Uganda harnesses data METEOSAT. Thus, to help farmers, the project examines previous data to predict crop yields for smallholder crop farmers. If the expected crop yields are low, the farmers who bought an insurance policy receive a payout, allowing farmers to access financial assistance earlier than if they had to wait for lengthy damage assessments and an uncertain humanitarian intervention by the government.

However, governments and relevant organisations need to increase the awareness of insuring cocoa farms and crops for smallholder farmers so they can understand its impacts on dealing with risk-related issues and offboard some financial burdens.

Weather Forecasting: Weather conditions are critical in cocoa production because they are sensitive to weather conditions, including temperature, rainfall, and humidity. Space-based weather forecasting uses satellites such as Geostationary Orbiting Environmental Satellites (GOES) and other remote sensing technologies to collect data on weather conditions.

This information is used to create models that predict weather conditions in specific African regions, such as prolonged droughts. Furthermore, it ensures farmers can preserve water and detect other deficiencies such as water stress, pest infestations, and nutrient deficiencies. In addition, accurate weather information can help farmers plan their farming activities, such as pruning and weeding, which significantly impact the health and productivity of cocoa.

For instance, the MARS (Monitoring Agricultural Resources) crop monitoring service, a global platform for monitoring global food security, is updated by utilising weather observations, weather forecasts and other remote sensing data to provide end-of-season yield forecasts. In addition, the platforms have products such as graphs and maps of weather indicators based on observations and numerical weather models, charts and maps of crop indicators based on agro-meteorological models, graphs and maps of vegetation indices and gathered dry matter based on remote sensing images.

Conclusion

Space-based technologies can play a significant role in improving the African cocoa markets. Using satellite imagery, for instance, can help farmers monitor their crops, detect disease outbreaks and predict yields, which helps reduce waste and increase productivity as utilised in the SAT4farming programme. Similarly, space-based technologies can improve supply chain transparency, ensuring farmers receive fair crop prices. Thus, by tracking cocoa shipments from the farm to the end consumer, space-based technologies can help to reduce the risk of fraud, corruption, and exploitation.

However, to achieve the full potential of space-based technologies in improving the African cocoa markets, addressing some challenges that may hinder their implementation is essential. One of the significant challenges is the cost of technology and infrastructure. While satellite imagery and other space-based technologies have become affordable due to the ‘as-a-service’ model, setting up other necessary infrastructure can be difficult for farmers. Moreover, smallholder farmers lack the technical expertise and knowledge to use space-based technologies. Thus, partnerships between governments, the private sector and international organisations can help fund and implement technological solutions through capacity-building programmes.

by Deborah Faboade