Project Factsheet

Project duration: January 2019 – December 2019

Implementation partner: Pacific Rim Plantation Services Pte Ltd, The Earthworm Foundation
Further partners: Florin AG
Direct beneficiaries: Approx. 6’000 smallholder coconut farmers and their family and community members
Focus areas covered: creating the motivation, capabilities and capacity of farmers; fostering an enabling environment and removing constraints

Improving livelihoods of copra producing families

and communities towards a sustainable supply
chain for coconut oil
Western Province, Solomon Islands
About the Lindt Cocoa
Foundation:
The Lindt Cocoa Foundation
was founded in 2013 and has
the declared purpose of working
to achieve social and ecological
sustainability in the cultivation,
production and processing of
cocoa and other raw materials
used in chocolate production.

Learn more:
www.lindtcocoafoundation.org

The project aims to improve livelihoods of copra produc- colonial period (pre-independence) and are passed on
ing families and communities in the Western Province of from one generation to the next, with very little replant-
Solomon Islands and to develop supply chains of sus- ing or new plantings at present. Logistics constraints,
tainably produced coconut. poor infrastructure and transport facilities, lack of con-
sistent and dependable off-take arrangements, inability
Context to achieve a fair pricing for the produce, and insufficient
Solomon Islands is the second largest tropical island in funding are some of the constraints coconut farmers
the Pacific Islands group, which comprises six major is- face to improve their livelihoods.
lands. The main economic sectors are agriculture, for-
estry, saw milling, fishing, retail & wholesale, and manu- Project content
facturing. The coconut tree is known as the ‘tree of life’ This is a follow-up project of a project which started
in the Solomon Islands, as most communities around originally in summer 2017 in the Western Province of
the country consume and or sell coconut products on a the Solomon Islands. As a first step, a deep understand-
regular basis. Copra – the coconut flesh used for coco- ing of the context was required to design the transfor-
nut oil – is the most important coconut product and is a mation action plan. The plan considered the geograph-
vital source of income for over 40,000 households. ical spread of the project catchment area with a total of
Coconut farming in the Western Province (as in the rest approximately 178 copra supplying villages which were
of the country) is done in a traditional way with little or grouped into 16 clusters (approx. 50’000 people living in
no usage of inputs like fertilizers etc. Majority of the co- the area).
conut farms typically are of a few trees to a few hec- Out of these villages, 35 villages were pre-selected for
tares in size, and are individually or community man- the assessment phase due to their volume, production
aged. These plantations were mostly established in the potential and proximity. The findings of the assessment,
which took place in 2017/2018, indicated that the follow- while six additional modules are drafted and the project
ing challenges are faced by copra producing communi- is looking for further specialized partners to implement
ties; unorganized and highly dispersed farmer network; this training (e.g. on domestic violence). The 16 clusters
unreliable and high costs of transport; limited market ac- are placed at central locations as the farmers of the re-
cess; low knowledge on best practice, markets and gion are spread over various islands. Nevertheless, not
threats, and; limited access to tools and support ser- all farmers can afford the funds and time to travel to the
vices. Further, the findings showed that many farmer respective cluster hub to attend training.
communities lack access to basic services such as
proper sanitation, electricity, medical clinics, clean water 3) Better access to appropriate tools and equipment
and schooling, while also highlighting the large potential Access to tools and equipment was identified as a major
opportunity for communities to increase their income barrier for farming households and at the same time a
and wellbeing through the copra industry. Basis the big potential for improved productivity effectiveness and
needs assessment an action plan was developed for efficiency. Further research has been undertaken to
which the implementation started in 2018 and will be compare cost/benefit of tools and equipment for farmers
continued in 2019. (hours of work saved, costs, environmental & social im-
pacts and access/availability). This informs support and
1) Value creation by mapping and maximizing the advice to farmers. The project also facilitates easier ac-
current and potential supply chain cess to tools by for example selling drums used for dry-
The project’s aim is to record all direct supplying farm- ing in the buying station in Noro or by displaying a list of
ers and villages in order to establish traceability as a ba- locally available tools with cost details, contact details
sis for the engagement. By end of 2018, 6’941 farmers and access points. The project has also investigated the
from 197 villages were recorded and for 57 farmers fur- effectiveness and efficiency of the solar drying method,
ther baseline data gathered to better understand the as it is an environmentally friendlier and economic
supply chain opportunities and challenges and engage method for drying copra (vs. the traditional drying on
in form of trainings. Further, satellite image mapping heat from fire made in drums). The topic of drying, es-
helped to identify the coconut plantation areas and size pecially solar drying, is apart from the training a core
of plantations in the region and will serve to better or- topic to be further elaborated in 2019 (e.g. demo dryers,
ganize farmers, their transportation and plan trainings. finding cheaper solar dryer options).
In each of the 16 clusters approximately 4 to 5 lead
farmers were identified (min. 2 of them women) basis The output and outcome indicators defined in the pro-
their participation in training, engagement, entrepre- ject shall help to measure the progress made on the
neurial spirit and willingness to do record keeping which ground.
will be used to track progress made through the project.
These lead farmers with entrepreneurial spirit shall be a Serving the mission of the Lindt Cocoa Foundation
connecting point between SICPL and the villages, re- The project puts coconut farming families from the Solo-
ceive coaching and support their communities in achiev- mon Islands in the center, and touches upon two of the
ing change. focus areas of the Lindt Cocoa Foundation:
1) Training and capacity building to create the moti-
2) Reinforce resilience through farmer and commu- vation, capabilities and capacity of farmers to im-
nity awareness trainings prove their farming practices
A SWOT analysis was conducted with farmer groups to 2) Agricultural and community development activi-
identify training needs. 12 training modules around agri- ties foster an enabling environment and remove
cultural, environmental and social practices were identi- constraints farmers face to improve their prac-
fied (e.g. coconut cultivation, intercropping, safety in tices.
copra, financial literacy). Training material for six mod-
February 2019
ules is finalized and being trained in the 16 cluster hubs