PESTICIDES Cocoa farmers within Tony’s Open Chain supply chain apply chemicals only when strictly necessary. All partner cooperatives follow Fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance standards as a baseline, regardless of certification status. In January 2025, we conducted a survey to better understand farming practices, including pesticide use. The insights will guide future strategy and inform adjustments to our planned productivity programme over the coming years. Through our coaching programme, and via the additional premiums to be paid to 30% of farmers via our new productivity programme, we will support greater use of organic fertilisers and pesticides, whilst tracking uptake. Farmers are typically unable to afford these products independently, as organic options are both more expensive and less accessible in the market. To improve accessibility through our programme, we will support partner cooperatives in managing pesticide purchases based on farmers’ needs. Coaches will assess each case individually and recommend either chemical or organic solutions, depending on what is most appropriate. While chemical pesticides are often used for more aggressive pest outbreaks, organic alternatives could be recommended for less severe cases, aligning with our goal to promote sustainable practices whenever feasible. Training on safe pesticide use, with a focus on minimising exposure risks for children 80 , farmers and workers, will also be rolled out for 78 coaches across 8 partner cooperatives in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana in the next season. 80. The content of this training has been developed by the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI).
Coaches in Côte d’Ivoire learning composting techniques so that they can help farmers adopt these practices and reduce pesticide use.
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Ending exploitation in cocoa together
Living income
Climate, environment & productivity
Human rights
Governance & finances
Interesting appendices
Scaling for change
Introduction
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