Proforest Africa Initiative opens Rural Service Centre for Farmers in Ahafo Region

Proforest and its partners have inaugurated a Community Resource Management Area and Rural Service Centre at Dadiesoaba in the Asutifi South District of the Ahafo Region.

The facility is equipped with the resources needed to provide technical training and farm management services to 15,000 farmers within the project area to help improve sustainable agriculture and natural resources management.

The construction of the Rural Service Centre is part of the implementation of the ‘Building Deforestation-free Climate Resilient Cocoa Landscape’ programme by Proforest Initiative Africa with funding from Walmart Foundation.

The project covers approximately 45,880 hectares (about 80percent) of the Asunafo-Asutifi Asutifi Hotspot Intervention Area and directly contributes to 266 hectares of land restoration; 20,000 hectares of land conservation and 30,000 hectares of sustainable management of cocoa.

The project also has a focus on women, training at least 100 women in the Dadiesoaba community to help diversify incomes and improve livelihoods, while supporting them with finance through a revolving fund.

At the commissioning of the RSC, the Global and Africa Director of Proforest explained how this contributes to the vision of the organisation.

“We want to help farmers address issues of climate change and its dire impact because of the destruction of our forest. Cocoa production is going down that is why we have introduced the revolving fund to support women to diversify their income. Proforest is also rehabilitating 266 hectares of the degraded Abonyere forest.”

The Rural Service Centre is equipped with input shop and machinery for farm management, meeting halls for training of farmers and community members in sustainable agriculture and natural resources management.

The Centre will also host the Dadiesoaba District Office of the Cocoa Management System (CMS), an office for CHED (COCOBOD) technical officer as well as office for the Dadiesoaba Zone/Community Rural Management Area.

The long-term goal of our landscape programme is to promote more sustainable landscapes where forests are safeguarded and restored, and biodiversity is conserved through climate-resilient agriculture, whilst uplifting community living conditions.

Proforest is working with other key stakeholders like the National REDD Secretariat of the Forestry Commission, World Cocoa Foundation and COCOBOD to implement this project.

Proforest is a global mission-driven organisation, focused on the production base and supply chains of agricultural and forestry commodities including soy, sugar, rubber, palm oil, cocoa, coconut, beef and timber.

We support companies with direct action to tackle environmental and social risks throughout the supply chain.

We also work with governments, companies, and collaborative organisations, to address systemic issues beyond the supply chain, within a landscape or a sector, to deliver positive outcomes at scale for people, nature and climate.

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