Proforest has commissioned a new Rural Service Centre at Asumura in the Asunafo North Municipality of the Ahafo Region to expand support for cocoa farmers seeking to improve productivity, strengthen climate resilience and protect forests.
Established under the Building Deforestation-free Climate Resilient Cocoa Landscape programme with funding support from the Walmart Foundation, the centre will provide technical training, farm-management services and a local platform for community leadership and social and environmental governance.
The Asumura facility builds on Proforest's first Rural Service Centre, commissioned at Dadiesoaba in the Asutifi South District in 2024. That centre now provides technical training and farm-management services for farmers and surrounding communities.
The Municipal Chief Executive of Asunafo North, Honourable Joseph Akparibo, said the project, carried out within the framework of the Ghana Cocoa Forest REDD+ Programme, was closely aligned with the government's Agriculture for Economic Transformation Agenda and its flagship Feed Ghana Programme.
"Feed Ghana seeks to raise productivity, strengthen food security, create jobs, supply raw materials to industry and connect farmers to markets," he said.
The Executive Director for Global and Africa at Proforest, Mr Abraham Baffoe, said the collective efforts demonstrated that sustainable production, environmental stewardship and community development could go hand in hand.
"Let us continue to demonstrate that together, we can build a prosperous, climate-resilient, and deforestation-free landscape for current and future generations," he said.
The Director of Strategic Initiatives at Walmart Foundation, Mr Simon Hall, said the foundation was proud to support the work.
"We look forward to seeing how farmers use it to help grow more sustainable cocoa and how the community uses it to help advance local governance of the landscape initiative," he said.
The Asumura Rural Service Centre is expected to strengthen climate-resilient and deforestation-free cocoa production in the Ahafo Region. By bringing technical training, farm-management support and community-led governance closer to farmers, the facility will help improve livelihoods and productivity while promoting responsible land use and forest protection.