Question

Cocoa plays a vital part in the Ghanaian economy employing about 800,000 smallholder farmers and comprising the second leading export out of Ghana. Increase in cocoa production has been mainly attributed to farm expansions and to a lesser extent to access to improved and high yielding seeds and farm inputs.

A baseline study conducted on the environment in the cocoa sector showed that cocoa production has intensified over the last three decades at the expense of forest losses due to the promotion of zero shade systems and movements of the timber sector. A significant consequence of deforestation, which has significantly affected cocoa production, is the loss of major soil nutrients, which is now a leading cause of the gradual decline of national cocoa yields.

The Project

The overall objective of the project was to create institutional systems, tools and policies to rehabilitate cocoa landscapes; conserve and expand forests, forest buffer zones and corridors; and incentivize cocoa farmers to adopt environmentally friendly best practices.

The project is in 2 phases, and phase 2 has to meet two broad objectives as follows:

1. Farmers in the program adopt environmentally sustainable and climate change resilient cocoa production practices on their farms. 2. Cocoa production landscapes in the Cocoa Life communities and districts are managed sustainably to conserve ecosystems and natural resources.

The project is designed to scale up activities to cover 200 communities in 10 districts by adopting three key strategies:

1. Mainstreaming of ecologically sustainable production practices into farmer extension training. The main element of this strategy is to develop training modules on selected environmental sustainability practices and train Agents to enable them to also train farmers on the selected practices 2. Ensuring long-term ecosystem protection at the district to community levels by establishing Resource Management Areas in selected districts 3. Policy engagement with government on land tenure and tree tenure rights.

One major activity within the scope of this project is to develop training modules on selected environmental sustainability practices and train the farmers in such.  

Your organisation has been selected to handle this aspect of the project

ABOUT YOUR ORGANISATION

Mission To optimize the linkage between agriculture and industry by developing healthy, organic, quality products for the benefit of everyday consumers in Ghana.

Vision To transform the country’s diverse raw materials and create industry out of Ghana’s plentiful natural resources and to offer tailor made agribusiness services in agricultural investment, research, management, and operation.

1. Conduct a stakeholder matrix for the project.

Answer 1

Stakeholder Matrix for this Project :

[1] The stakeholder in this projects are as follows :

• Farmers - As they have invested their hard work and time in the agricultural production process of the cocoa product and if they have not repead with the desired output their labour goes futile.
• The dealer of Cocoa - who had invested for it in return of supply of the product so that they can further process the product and make a finish product out of them and if the nutrient value is low it would be not that beneficial as they will loss their customer.
• The exporters - The industry dealing in the export of the product will severally get impact as due to low production their supply will be low result in lower return.
• The manufacturer - the manufacturer of the chocolate company lacks in the farming contracts result in the low manufactured product out of the low input of cocoa.

[2] If have to recruit a project manager for this project the key areas for their responsibilities will be as follows :

• Environmental friendly techniques- The project manager is suppose to adopt the methods and techniques of production which afre environment friendly and may not deter or impact its environment in any way.
• Provide Training - The project manager is suppose to train the farmer and other workers involved in the production process in order to make their work more effective and efficient in order to achieve the quality output.
• Innovation ways and methos - The project manager must bring in some innovative way in order to produce desired yield with the minimum input materials.
• Must check out the issues arising if any- The project manager is the one responsible to deal with the issue occuring during any process of production and then expexted to provide with an effective solution for the occured problem.

[3] The following are the key member roles/jobes which the project manager should include in their project team along with their duties are :

• Supervisors - The project team of the manager must consist of the supervisor who might be held responsible for all the supervisory work and thus report any loophole, if any occured during the process the duties of a supervisor is to check over the process going accordingly as per the assigned duties of each individual.
• Trainer- Another team member of the team project should be a trainer who is held responsible in providing training to the farmer regarding the effective methods of production and to the untrained staff if any by making them aware about their role in the job.
• Expert- the expert is suppose to provide its expertise required in providing innovative ideas related with the production process without impacting the environment and providing solution in the severe condition which may help in avoiding the problem using its tactics.

[4] The strategic issue that may be faced by the project team  is the environmental impact of their activities,which may hampers the surrounded environment having severe ecological impact as they are suppose to adopt the ecofriendly measure in pursuit of their set target to be achieved.The production process which has been adopted in Ghana in the cocoa production process is leading to deforestation by cuuting down of nature trees in order to carry out the production process with zero shade system and timber movement. resulting in eradication of soil nutrients. thus we need to opt for high yielding quality seeds in order to benefit the product through eco friendly process with harming the environment.

Please Please Up vote my answer. Thank You Soo much. Have a Great Day. Please Please up vote my answer. I explained clearly stakeholder matrix. Please up vote