Food security programme supports Indonesia's cocoa farmers

The Netherlands’ first food security programme for Indonesia was officially initiated with the signing of a contract agreement between Wouter Plomp (seen on right), deputy head of the mission and Peter Bissegger, regional director SE Asia of SwissContact, on December 3, 2012. The contract seals the deal for the ‘Food Security and Nutrition Component in the Sustainable Cocoa Production Programme’ (SCPP).

SCPP is a large public private partnership, including funds from the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and the Netherlands Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH). It started in January 2012 and includes, in its first phase, six provinces in Indonesia.

SCPP has targeted 60,000 smallholder cocoa farmers for direct capacity development to improve the productivity and quality of cocoa production in Indonesia. About1,900 formal farmer groups will be strengthened through improved management, organisational capabilities and financial management skills, as well as the establishment and certification of at least 10 farmer organisations/associations with Rainforest Alliance and/or UTZ Certified to safeguard the sustainability.

The Netherlands Embassy in Indonesia supports the SCPP by co-funding its activities, and intends to upgrade the performance of the cash crop sector as well as improve the food and nutrition situation amongst farmers.

The proposed components intervention follows two impact pathways to achieve food security: increased production of food crops and improved nutritional awareness. The intervention is embedded into the SCPP cocoa farmer and farmer group trainings as outlined in the SECO and IDH programme documentation.

Direct beneficiaries under the proposed new component for food security and nutrition are 40,000 smallholder cocoa farming families (70% of the total SCPP direct beneficiaries trained on cocoa) with some 200,000 household members that will have an improved intake of nutritious food.

Main component outcomes are that there be a measurable increase in the percentage of targeted producer households consuming 400g or more of fruits and vegetables per household per day, as well as an increased percentage of households able to produce, barter, or purchase the recommended quantities of fruits or vegetables from local markets. In the framework of the project, kitchen garden models will be developed to obtain a secure vegetable and fruit provision.

The requested funds from the Dutch Embassy are budgeted for the duration of December 2012 to  December 2015. (In photo, Peter Bissegger, left, with Wouter Plomp)