Cargill teams up with Hershey

Cargill will provide 6,000 more Ghanaian cocoa farmers and community members with access to CocoaLink. CocoaLink is a programme which uses mobile phone voice and SMS text messages to connect cocoa farmers with information about good farming practices, labour safety, and crop marketing.

The programme has proven to be an effective tool to spread knowledge and share good practices to help farmers increase yields and market their products better so they can increase their incomes. It has reached 16,289 farmers in the past two years and its goal is to reach 100,000 farmers by the end of 2013.

Over the coming months, Cargill will implement the rollout of CocoaLink to 6,000 farmers who participate in Cargill’s Farmer Field Schools in Ghana. The programme will reinforce what farmers have learned during training, increasing its effectiveness, bringing even greater benefits to farmers. WCF trainers will conduct training classes on the technology, with the Ghana Cocoa Board providing the information that is shared with farmers.

CocoaLink was established in 2011 by the Ghana Cocoa Board, the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF), and the Hershey Company.