AID grant to Pan American Development Foundation for the accelerated cocoa production project

In all, some 600 acres of cocoa will be planted at two locations. One location will be designated for farmers who are currently employed by Hershey Corporation; each farmer will be allocated 25 acres to develop (including land clearing, building of a residence, and planting 10 acres in cocoa and the rest in other crops). A similar but larger area (with 50 acres per farmer) will be designated in the Valley of Peace for other small farmers interested in growing cocoa. Participating farmers will receive extension services from Peace Corps volunteers, government extensionists, and Hummingbird staff. In addition, a community development specialist will be supplied via a subgrant with Volunteers in Technical Assistance to assist in organizing socioeconomic infrastructure at the two project communities. Hummingbird Farm will serve as project headquarters and also as a center to upgrade the skills of 15-20 government extensionists (including 6 who will be trained as trainers) and 3 PCV"s assigned to the project. A method for transferring the project"s technology package to farmers in other areas will be developed during the project"s third and final year.