Cocoa farmers full of beans for a brighter future

The next time you bite into a delicious chocolate bar, take a moment to consider that most cocoa beans are produced by around 10-million poor, smallholder rural families.

'Bulk cocoa' supplies a largely undifferentiated, commoditised market that keeps both prices and farmer incomes low. However, consumer demand is steadily increasing for fine-flavour cocoa products which depend largely on the different genetic make-up of different varieties.

2010 saw the completion of Phase-2 of a Bioversity project to contribute to the welfare of cocoa smallholders, through higher and more sustainable productivity levels of good quality cocoa, at lower production costs.

Selection, distribution and use of new improved cocoa varieties have all helped to make cocoa cultivation more competitive and attractive to new generations of cocoa farmers. It has also facilitated diversification of cocoa-based farming systems by reducing land, labour and cash requirements for cultivation.

During the project, on-farm and regional trials compared breeders’ selections to farm selections so cocoa farmers could more easily adopt improved materials best suited to their own conditions. Several project activities are still ongoing, including the trials work, which could extend within local breeding programmes.

However, new collaborative initiatives are required to continue with the pre-breeding programmes and with the distribution of selected materials. Material with improved disease resistance still needs to be distributed and regional cooperation is needed to overcome the major constraints in cocoa production, such as destructive diseases and pests, as these vary between regions.

Read the project report:
 Cocoa productivity and quality improvement: A participatory approach  [2] (385 KB)

Find out more Cacaonet  [3] - the global cocoa research network supported by Bioversity

Note:
Bioversity worked with 14 research partners in 14 countries across Latin America, Africa and the Asia Pacific during the project. The work is mainly financed by the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC  [4]), via the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO  [5]), with additional support provided by: the Cocoa Research Association (CRA  [6]), UK; CIRAD  [7], France; the Guittard Chocolate Company  [8], USA; Mars Inc  [9]., UK & USA ; the USDA   [10]and the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF  [11]), USA