I C I Program - Achieving 200 Thousand Farmers by 20 20

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i c i system is reaching about a hundred and 25 thousand farming households. It has also inspired others, such as mondeles, maker of canterbury chocolates, to develop their own version of the siela mares system. And our estimate is that across the whole sector, some form of child labour monitoring and remediation system should be covering approximately 300 million farmers by 20 20.

Child labor has been a longstanding scourge in the $100-billion cocoa industry for more than two decades. Despite efforts by U.S. Congressmen, African governments, the world’s biggest chocolate companies and various non-profit groups, it has been a tough nut to crack. In this episode, we look at program that actually seems to be having an effect. It uses a network of smartphones to identify child laborers on thousands of remote farms in Ghana and the Ivory Coast. It then tries to persuade farmers to stop using their children on farms and to send them to school instead. You will hear from cocoa farmers in Ghana, from Nestle, maker of KitKat, and a Swiss non-profit group called the International Cocoa Initiative, or ICI, which co-founded the program. (Photo: AP)