Agriculture in Côte d’Ivoire: Overview of the National Agronomic Research Center

Interview with Dr Yté Wongbé, General Director of CNRA (Centre National de Recherche Agronomique de Côte d’Ivoire)

Let’s talk a bit about agricultural production in Côte d’Ivoire. Agriculture is a form of power in Côte d’Ivoire and fortunately it is still progressing. Côte d’Ivoire is a world leader in producing cocoa, an African leader in the production of rubber which has increased to 350 thousand tonnes not to mention coffee and cotton. It has changed since the militant days of the first producers and exploiters. Could you give me an overview of current agricultural trade?

What you just said sums up the situation as the economy of this country relies upon agriculture. It is essential to add that soon the production of coffee is going to pick up again. In terms of the production of cotton, after a year long production process it stands at 4/5 thousand tonnes. This means Ivorian agriculture is in full expansion thanks to support from selective research by putting at the disposal of producers trial disease-free plant matter but which equally will have an increased productivity or demand as a result. Therefore, it becomes more and more necessary to take into account the current context of climate change.

Climate change, does that mean all your seasons are like summer or does it rain a lot?

It rains.

Is that what you are referring to? What do you mean in terms of climate change?

In fact nowadays, as the climate changes more and more we record the rainfall less and less. The seasons are not as severe as back then with six months of rain, so it is important to know when to start planting. We must move increasingly towards trialling different varieties that have a short crop cycle which can be limiting during the rainy season or when there is a gap which allows me in the meantime to handle the deficits which can be created.

What are the main challenges in terms of productivity, quality and competitiveness that Ivorian agriculture must face up to?

The big challenges of Ivorian agriculture is firstly carrying out research on the Ivorian economy. The second is not only being able to feed the Ivorian population, but also other surrounding sub-regional countries as it is hardly paradise here. Nowadays with the Ebola virus, there are many deaths in certain towns so this causes a lot disruption especially in terms of the production chain in these countries. It is essential to start again so Côte d’Ivoire continues to provide its expertise and equally be a support in terms of the revival of agriculture. For example, I went to ODMedia who knew about the long crisis period of the war, but in terms of agriculture we assigned a partner so that the CNRA could support them. Unfortunately, with the current situation we are at a standstill, but the challenge for Côte d’Ivoire is that this country relies on agriculture. It is therefore necessary that our agriculture supports the Ivorian economy and that it is productive by using less land and by preserving the ecosystem of our natural resources.

Talking of productivity what is your viewpoint on training producers?

In terms of all the leading players in Ivorian agriculture, the phrase which they abide by is “good agricultural practice”. All you need to do is to equally respect the regulations and the environment. If you do that, productivity will increase and you will create more high quality goods. For example, take the case of chocolate made using Ivorian cocoa. If we are the prime producers it is because we have made a quality product as researched by chocolatiers in order to make good chocolate. The cacao we have respects this as we produce large cocoa beans. The cocoa beans respect the research of the chocolatiers and what the factories class as a quality product. It is necessary that the quality of our products is competitive.

Could you inform us of your connections, what have you put in place over the past year and what have you been working on recently?

Côte d’Ivoire has put in place a system which is controlled by the national agency of rural development (ANADER) and is managed financially by FIRCA who carries out inter-professional research on agricultural management. Then there is the CNRA. As part of the CNRA, we have permission to lead research but only as requested by producers to carry out practical research adapted to meet the needs of producers. Nowadays, if cotton producers tell us our varieties have certain problems it is our role to discover new varieties which can respond to the demands either of the cotton industry or the productivity according to what the producers themselves want.

Do you have any examples of success stories which illustrate what you have done recently?

Nowadays the results are not immediate. I could talk to you about cocoa but we started that years ago. Today you can see the effect of the productivity of cocoa on a national scale. I can give you a different agricultural example: for some years we have had a partnership with Brazil concerning a certain type of fish called tilapia. There has been work carried out over there and those researchers will come back to Côte d’Ivoire soon to work with the CNRA to re-adapt and re-introduce them to develop Ivorian fish farming in order to resolve problems of protein and fish productivity. It is similar for cotton. We have succeeded in starting up the seed production chain which was completely disturbed by the crisis, but now things have taken off. The CNRA is called upon to work on improving plant variety to increase productivity. We especially need to increase the size of cashew nuts so they are more adapted for industry. We regularly do this but at the same time we must equally preserve the fertility of the land as evidently plants will take everything out of the soil. Maintaining the fertility of the soil is part of the work we do and why we have partners with other countries such as Morocco. We are in the process of setting up a project to work on soil fertility so we can optimise the land and to know which type of soil we need to make production the most effective.

I would like to know what your priority is at the moment.

Currently, in terms of the CNRA our priority is the Swollen Shoot disease which is an extremely restricting factor in terms of cacao productivity. Consequently, it is essential to work to find solutions as in the case of climate change. We are not working alone on this as we have signed an agreement with CIRAD (French research centre for agricultural development) to work together to and equally to attack other agricultural concerns, in order to maintain and increase agricultural productivity and the quality of produce.

In terms of quality, it’s true to say that increasingly the whole world needs quality produce. As people are becoming less accepting, regulations are constricting and change all the time in order to be able to export. How do you work with this increase in restrictions?

We adapt, for example the world talks more and more of organic products – products which use less pesticides. We must take into account the specification we have been given to follow “good agricultural practice.” A product grown using pesticides cannot be exported easily by us. On a European level, people are very watchful over such produce We must make sure that products we export do not fit into that category and use techniques and technologies which allow producers to make produce which respect international regulations.

Could we discuss the subject of partners? Why does the CNRA look for partners and what kind of partners do you look for?

We are a research centre so our main partners are institutions who work in the same areas of research as us across the world. In terms of Africa we are in contact with all other countries and research centres. We even work with the WAEMU countries. Nowadays, we increasingly work with partners via FARA which is the source of African agricultural research. Consequently, we work with partners such as CORAF which is similarly a meeting place for establishing information exchange or starting up joint projects. That is the situation in Africa, but we also have partners such as CIRAD in Europe. In the sub-regions in Africa we have rice and maize and a certain number of agricultural produce. We work with some partners to have an activity integrated with all current issues to create solutions which respond to our exact needs.

Is that for the exchange of knowledge?

Yes it is for the exchange of knowledge. Nowadays the CNRA works so that productivity is transformed in order to give more value to its produce. This is why currently the CNRA will be interested in palm trees and the power to have a partner with financial assets in order to create an oil-works for example. This allows us to increase our powers in another capacity- that of technical research into the quality of oil. There is increasingly a world polemic around oil and consequently we make use of our regional, national and even international partners as a tool to allow us to recruit researchers in oil technology but also to confront problems so the outcome can benefit from the unity of factory work in terms of oil production. It is necessary to move forward, so that is what we are doing. This is the same as we did with liquor, cocoa and coffee. We have these products in the supermarkets of Côte d’Ivoire, but we equally need promotion in order to produce in big quantities but we do not have the means to do it. We therefore form financial partnerships to work with us. I think the increase in partners could allow the CRNA to maintain its financial means and to continue managing its work and responding to projects it has been given; to lead research projects which work alongside Ivorian agriculture.

To expand you must know your products. Is there something you would like to improve such as transferring technology to your producers?

The CRNA is looking at how we can improve the system as it essential that the technologies we have put in place are well understood by producers and that those who use it are well trained. It is necessary to have regular contact between producers and researchers so the producers use “good agricultural practice”. At the time of Côte d’Ivoire’s independence there was 18 billion hectares of forest which today has competitors with two/three million. This means it is essential to preserve and ensure that three million remain and if you cannot maintain the previous amount, then at least preserve what is essential. We must preserve our ecosystem as a lot of the Amazon rainforest has been destroyed. There are problem areas such as pollution but it is not just on an industrial scale. We need to preserve the forest, our natural resources and our land.

Yes, that is fundamental for Ivorian development. To conclude, my last question is, in an ideal situation, what would you like to achieve in three years? In an ideal scenario if you had all the means and a magic wand, if you had the possibility to do what you want, what would you like to achieve?

To equip the CNRA with quality human resources and to qualify a sufficient number of people to be able to effectively lead necessary research projects. It is essential to have some means of financial support. For a while there has been a difficulty in recruiting young people so we would like to achieve this and to be able to teach them and equip them with scientific materials so they can work in good conditions and we can be more efficient. If we are efficient, agriculture will be efficient and Côte d’Ivoire will be efficient.

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