Cocoa

Perspective, the CIRAD policy brief

Cocoa agroforestry systems in Africa: the art of reconciling sustainable production and ecological services
Perspective 54, 22 October 2020
Agroforestry is a credible option for sustainable cocoa growing in Africa. Farmers and technical advisors can manage cocoa agroforestry plantings using a straightforward indicator: the basal area of cocoa trees and associated trees.

Books and documents

• Sustainable development and tropical agri-chains, Estelle Biénabe, Alain Rival, Denis Loeillet (ed.), Springer, 2017
• Du cacao au chocolat : l’épopée d’une gourmandise, Michel Barel, Quæ, 2016
• Quel est le meilleur chocolat ? 90 clés pour comprendre le chocolat, Michel Barel, Quæ, 2015
• Economics and ecology of diversification: The case of tropical tree crops, François Ruf, Götz Schroth (ed.), Springer, 2015
• Qualité du cacao : l’impact du traitement postrécolte, Michel Barel, Quæ, 2013
• Une histoire des plantes coloniales, du cacao à la vanille, Serge Volper, Quæ, 2011
• Improvement of cocoa tree resistance to Phytophthora diseases, Cilas C., Despréaux D., CIRAD, 2004.
• Agroforesterie et services écosystémiques en zone tropicale, Ed. Josiane Seghieri et Jean Michel Harmand. Quae, 2019
• The cacao Criollo genome v2.0: An improved version of the genome for genetic and functional genomic studies, Argout Xavier, Martin Guillaume, Droc Gaëtan, Fouet Olivier, Labadie Karine, Rivals Eric, Aury Jean-Marc, Lanaud Claire. 2017. BMC Genomics, 18:730, 9 p.
• Ecosystem services from agriculture and agroforestry: measurement and payment, Rapidel Bruno (ed.), DeClerck Fabrice (ed.), Le Coq Jean-François (ed.), Beer John (ed.). 2011. Londres : Earthscan Publications, 433 p.

Scientific websites

Cocoa4future project: Redrawing the future of the cocoa sector together
2020

BarCo: barrier crops against the spread of cocoa swollen shoot disease in Ivory Coast
01/2021
The BarCo project in Ivory Coast aims to develop and promote the use of hedges around cocoa plantings, to limit the spread of swollen shoot in disease foci. The hedges set up during replanting, after destroying infected plantings, act as plant barriers by reducing the capacity of the vector insects –  mealybugs – to transmit the disease.

REGEPE project: tree crop genetic resources in French Guiana
01/2020
The aim is to have the tree crop biological resource centre (BRC) in French Guiana (PPG) certified and launch a tropical forest BRC, the French Guiana Biological Resource Centre: tropical tree crops for agriculture, research and product promotion.

Links

• RSCE (Roundtable for a Sustainable Cocoa Economy, ICCO, Ivory Coast)
• ICGD (International Cocoa Germplasm Database, United Kingdom)
• ECA (European Cocoa Association, Belgium)
• FCC (Federation of Cocoa Commerce, United Kingdom)
• WCF (World Cocoa Foundation, United States)
• CABI (Centre for Agriculture and Biosciences International, United Kingdom)
• GISCO (German Initiative for Sustainable Cocoa, Germany)
• DISCO (Dutch initiative on Sustainable Cocoa, Netherlands)
• Beyond Chocolate (Belgium)
• Swiss Platform for Sustainable Cocoa (Switzerland)

Scientific publications

See CIRAD's publications on cocoa