The first field study was a baseline survey with objective to understand the socio-economic and environmental context, as well as food systems and related market characteristics of the Ntui Living Lab.

This survey was done within five days.

Field survey revealed four principal cropsꓻ Cocoa, cassava, maize and yam. Plantain, banana, fruit trees and cocoyam are integrated into cocoa farms. This explains the reasons for their reduced productivity with an increase in the cocoa canopy. 100 % of the men in the study area are cocoa producers as against 16.67 % of women. Concerning other subsistence crops, only women produce them as focal crops.

Cocoa is the main cash crop of the Ntui Living Lab with a well-established market channel. Concerning the number of years in cocoa farming, 36.7 % have less than 20 years while 66.3 % have more than 20 years.

Beside climate change which is a major challenge to the entire farming system, the subsistence crops sector mostly dominated by women is subjected to other challenges like little or no available market,  processing unites or storage facilities. These are however compounded by the bad road network in the rural communities. The subsistence crop market is a complicated one with no fix price. In village communities with no available markets and road network, producer or buyers will some time arrange for a harvest on phone.  Motor bikes are the best transportation means and are very expensive. With all these in place, the buyer/consumer is the price giver and the farmer the price taker. This however does not put the producer (mostly women) in a favourable condition and thus reason for women moving in the cocoa sector as studies indicated.