Climate Smart Cocoa (CSC) is not only about avoiding future losses but also about mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and improving the livelihoods of farmers by increasing the productivity and resilience of their farms. The current state of cocoa production in Ghana has significant leeway to become more forward-looking and …
The weather may not always have been kind to cocoa farmers in West Africa, but until recently it was at least broadly predictable. Temperature always hovered between 22 and 29 degrees Celsius, rains fell between April and July -- plus another short period between October and mid-November -- and the …
The latest victim of climate change could well be something we all take for granted. It is delicious, ubiquitous, and most people cannot think of dessert without it. The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) recently released a report that states that chocolate will soon become a luxury item that …
Cocoa production will become increasingly difficult in the key growing regions of West Africa by 2030 because of climate change, according to a new study.
Nestle on Wednesday ramped up its distribution of disease-resistant cocoa trees to farmers in Ivory Coast, part of a plan to boost productivity per hectare and improve the notoriously poor quality of the top grower's cocoa beans. The world's biggest food maker, which has distributed some 140,000 saplings since 2009, …
Being the father of a three and a half year old girl, I know a thing or two about chocolate. What I didn't know is that it comes wrapped with a lucrative livelihood formula for India's forest dwellers. Trailing a story on minor forest produce in Chhattisgarh's Jagdalpur district, Jhinki …
The Commodity Market Review, a biennial publication of the FAO trade and markets division, examines in depth issues relating to agricultural commodity market developments that are deemed by FAO as current and crucial for FAO's member countries. This biennial CMR is devoted to exploring in depth a variety of issues …
Here's bad news for Coca-Cola, from Bolivia this time. The soft drink giant may have to drop the word coca from its brands, if Bolivia's coca leaf farmers have their way. The peasants have said that the leaf is part of Bolivia's cultural heritage and the name needs protection. They …
The world's largest cocoa producing country recently witnessed its worst ethnic clash in several years. At least 60 members of the Guere ethnic group were killed in a tussle for control over the country's most fertile cocoa plantations. The attackers allegedly comprised the Dioula people from the rebel-held northern areas …
Ghana is a major producer of cocoa in the world and relies heavily on the crop for foreign exchange revenue. However, production declined since the mid-1960s, reaching its lowest level in 1983. Although production has increased consistently since the mid-1980s, it still is less than the level attained in the …
Chocolate is an easy temptation as well as a universal one. So proves the recent siege on cacao crops in Guatemala. A particular variety of fungus with a weakness for cacao beans (source of chocolate) is currently posing a threat to this major crop of Guatemala. The plant disease, moniliasis, …
The government has turned to forcible spraying of defoliant chemicals on coca plants across the country in an attempt to give strength to its anti-drug policy. This has led to strong protests from the Columbian farmers who have tried various methods like blocking the roads to the airstrips in Putumayo, …
A quiet revolution is taking place in the cocoa plantations of Nigeria. Cocoa yields had been on the decline over the ages due to ageing and neglect. Now farmers in the cocoa heartland of Ondo state are being trained to use artificial pollination and mycorrhizal (a symbiotic association of a …
A BATTLE royale is threatening to break out between chocolate manufacturers of the European Union (Fu) and cocoa producers in developing countries. At the crux of the issue is what should go into the making of tasty chocolate - cocoa butter or alternates like vegetable fat. The latter option, already …
The Women's Environmental Network had launched a campaign in spring 1993 against miserable working conditions and the use of pesticides in cocoa production. The campaign, aimed at ameliorating the health of cocoa farm workers and stopping pesticide poisoning in chocolates, scored a success when the UK government agreed to implement …
THE European Community's (EC) recent attempts to harmonise legislation on chocolates have kicked up a major controversy. The proposed EC directive would allow the incorporation of 5 per cent vegetable fat in chocolates. Several members of the African, the Caribbean and Pacific Nations (ACP) - supported by France - in …
Indonesia is excited over the development of a new strain of cocoa. The locally- developed strain has twin benefits: it makes far tastier chocolate, and is also resistant to a disease that has wrecked havoc on a greater part of the country's cocoa crop. Elated industry spokesmen foresee bigger cocoa …
