Hand Pollination Helps Cocoa Farmers Offset Climate Harm

By Sanjeet Bagcchi

Exploring ways for cocoa farmers to hand pollinate their crops could help offset crop losses resulting from climate changes, researchers suggest.

Rising temperatures have substantially reduced cocoa production in key producing countries, such as Brazil, Ghana and Indonesia, where farmers' livelihoods depend on it.

A study published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, which focused on these countries, found cocoa yields could drop as much as 30% in the warmest areas compared to sites that were 7° cooler.

Cocoa thrives under a specific temperature range, with 32°C being optimal for growth.

Enhancing the rate of cocoa pollination through hand pollination can improve cocoa yields by 20%, according to the study.

Teja Tscharntke, an author of the study and professor of agroecology at the University of Göttingen in Germany, told SciDev.Net: "It is still unknown which insect species are providing pollination success and how their populations can be best enhanced."

The researchers therefore suggest that innovations for effective hand pollination could provide a solution.

Prantik Banerjee, assistant professor of environmental science at the School of Basic and Applied Sciences, Adamas University in Kolkata, India, who was not involved in the study, said, "The research indicates that insufficient pollination is a critical factor limiting cocoa production.

"Addressing this could significantly boost yields without expanding plantation areas."

He said effective pollination methods and climate-resilient agricultural training programs could enable farmers to "change with the times."

Cocoa, the main ingredient in chocolate, is an important cash crop for some 5 million smallholder farmers, according to the World Cocoa Foundation. Most of these are in Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America.

The global chocolate industry is estimated to be worth over US$100 billion per year. The world's top three cocoa-producing countries, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana and Indonesia, account for about three-quarters of global production.

Revenues from cocoa help farmers pay for education, health services and food, progressing global goals of ending poverty and hunger, the study noted.

However, the rising demand for cocoa has led to an expansion of cocoa plantations—often at the expense of sustainability and biodiversity.

Native plants

Researchers in the study observed that various factors that limit the yield of cocoa are not satisfactorily understood. To address this, they analyzed the factors affecting cocoa production such as climate and pollination in three leading cocoa-producing countries—Indonesia, Brazil and Ghana.

Intermediate canopy cover—of cover crops planted between the cocoa tree—can help mitigate the negative effects of warmer temperatures, says Tscharntke.

He says more research is needed on cocoa pollination, climate change mitigation strategies, and new, climate-resilient varieties of cocoa plants.

In Indonesia, cocoa production is experiencing declining yields, partly due to climate change, notes Banerjee.