WASHINGTON (Yosefardi) – The World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) had on Tuesday (Sep 2) opened its application period for farm productivity and cocoa quality research projects in Eastern Indonesia.
Grants of up to $60,000 USD will be awarded to research projects that will improve the quality of life for Indonesian cocoa farmers and cocoa-farming families. The three-year program is made possible through the Ford Foundation’s Indonesian Cocoa Applied Research & Extension Grant.
Indonesia is the world’s third largest cocoa-producing country. Cocoa is an important source of livelihoods for hundreds of thousands of farmers in Indonesia.
Smallholder farmers, however, face three key challenges: managing pests and diseases, aging cocoa farms, and product quality.