PlantwisePlus Blog

Helping cocoa farmers tackle diseased crops in a sustainable way ©CABI

A recent article in Canada’s The Globe and Mail, discussed some of the upcoming issues associated with out-dated cultivation methods for cocoa crops. Demand for cocoa, and the end product chocolate, is increasing in Asian countries as salaries increase and demands shift. While it has been suggested that this might contribute to a world cocoa shortage, some of the ways in which this can be addressed is through improving and modernising technologies used to grow the crop. Increasing farm sizes, managing and mitigating pests of cocoa, increasing incentive to grow cocoa trees, and investing in more effective agri-inputs have all been proposed as ways to address this growing concern.

CABI has several projects ongoing to helping farmers in cocoa-growing regions improve farming techniques and improve the long-term sustainability of growing cocoa in West Africa, Southeast Asia, the South Pacific, Latin America, and the Caribbean. If you are interested in cocoa pests, please visit the Plantwise knowledge bank site.