The role of good agricultural practices in achieving sustainability and living income in Ivorian cocoa

In many agricultural sectors and agri-food chains, Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) are promoted as a key strategy to improve the quality and quantity of production, thereby boosting local incomes and livelihoods. Although Côte d’Ivoire is the world’s leading cocoa producing country, most cocoa farmers live far below the local Living Income benchmark. Further, given that many poverty-related sustainability challenges persist, a main element of public and private sustainability interventions center on demonstrating GAPs to farmers. Yet, there is no clear picture of not just the isolated associations of GAPs training on farmers’ production and wellbeing but also their actual mid-term sustainability. Furthermore, farmers’ perspectives on GAPs and major challenges related to their implementation are still not well understood. Applying a mixed methods approach, based on survey data ( N = 521) and farmer interviews ( N = 52) from two different cocoa loops in Côte d’Ivoire, we assess structural dimensions of GAPs training, costs and benefits of adoption, as well as contribution to cocoa yields and revenues. While cost-benefit analyses and robust linear regression models show positive effects of GAPs training on cocoa yields and revenues, our insights from qualitative data revealed largely unrecognized challenges, such as negative impacts on health and livelihood perceptions, as well as major structural barriers to GAPs adoption. We argue that cocoa farmers face limitations in applying GAPs that are beyond their control. Given the urgent need to break the cycle of poverty in cocoa production, the responsibilities of other key stakeholders in the cocoa value chain for reducing farmers’ income gaps must be clearly defined.