Cocoa diversity online tool

Cacao is vulnerable to climate change, which is already affecting cacao cultivation around the world, causing higher mortality of seedlings and adult trees, declines in yield quality and quantity, and increased incidence of pests and diseases. The introduction of material tolerant to climate change in cacao farms represents one of the most promising options to adapt cacao cultivation to climate change.

This tool has been developed to provide location-specific information about how to improve sustainability of cacao farms in Latin America. The tool gives information about the future impact of climate change on cacao cultivation and guides the selection of appropriate propagation material for climate change adaptation. The tool also includes information on the likely cadmium content in soil and cacao beans, and more features are expected to be included. The tool generates a report with this information for the selected sites that can be downloaded from the website.

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In what context is this tool useful?

This tool is useful for cacao farmers in Peru, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala, and provides location-specific information about the predicted impact of climate change on cacao plantations in these countries.

The tool shows the areas in these countries that are suitable for cultivated cacao rainfed and under irrigation, wild cacao, and the ecogeographical zones under current climatic conditions.

The tool also indicates whether cacao cultivation is likely to be negatively impacted by climate change in the future and which climatic variables are expected to impact cacao cultivation the most in selected sites. It also provides some recommendations to mitigate those expected climate impacts.

Finally, the tool provides to the farmers a list of genebanks, clonal gardens and nurseries where they can select appropriate climate-change tolerant propagation material for their selected sites. The list includes contact information and types of available varieties (including the names of the varieties and/or whether they have promising traits such as high productivity, fine flavor, resistance to pests and diseases etc.).

In the case of Peru, the tool also provides additional information about the likely cadmium content in soil and cacao beans in selected sites and shows a map with the phenological stages of cacao in the country.

Contact people

Viviana Ceccarelli - [email protected]

Evert Thomas - [email protected]