Agriculture and Environment: Cocoa

Better Management Practices: Reduce Waste and/or Create By-Products

Nearly 10 times as much waste from pod husks and pulp are generated for each metric ton of cocoa beans.

If properly composted, this material can provide large amounts of organic matter for fields without risking the spread of disease.

Alternatively, the pods can be ground and used in cattle feed or the alkaloid theobromine can be extracted from them for sale as a by-product. The pulp that surrounds the seeds is increasingly sold for juice, but it is also made into alcohol, vinegar, wines, and liqueurs (May et al. 1993). Such waste can also be dried and used for fuel. Producers are now exploring the possibility of using this waste for fuel to dry the beans or turning it into charcoal briquettes for sale on the open market.

In recent years, the adoption of very simple and relatively inexpensive crushers, coupled with fermentation of the cocoa hulls by inoculating with effective microorganisms that speed up composting, have shown that there is a potential for returning pod hulls back to the field.

The microorganisms used suppress the propagation of other harmful microorganisms and therefore do not contribute to the reestablishment of diseases such as witches'-broom. This could solve the disease problem currently associated with returning pod hulls to the field.