Agriculture and Environment: Cocoa

Introduction

Several different but complementary strategies could help reduce the environmental costs of cocoa production.

These practices should center on increasing the ability of producers to replant the same areas indefinitely, reducing the use of agrochemical inputs and the creation of wastes, and turning wastes into by-products or substitutes for purchased inputs.

Biodiversity can be promoted through interplanting, which can be sold to producers as a means of diversifying their sources of income. Working with producers to adopt better management practices will be most effective when complemented and supported by work with the larger industry, investors, and governments as part of a concerted effort to reduce the negative environmental impacts of the industry.

For cocoa, the identification of better management practices will require that producers and researchers work together to identify, analyze, document, and disseminate information about the most promising practices from around the world. In every instance, the approach should be to identify production techniques that pay for themselves and offset the cost of adopting the more expensive better management practices.

It appears that cocoa yields can be improved by more than 40% simply by adopting improved practices that allow producers to achieve yields that are within the genetic parameters of the varieties that they cultivate (Ooi et al. 1990). Such practices can be as simple as regular, thorough pruning after harvest to increase yields and reduce pests.