Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
problems during this time (Anon
2012b
). Ghana is the second-largest producer, fol-
lowed by Nigeria and Cameroon.
Although cocoa originated in South America, this region produces only 0.574 Mt
or 14 % of global production, mainly in Brazil and Ecuador. In the Asia Pacific
region, accounts for 15 %, mainly from Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, with
Indonesia being the third largest global cocoa producer.
Consumption figures are very different. Most cocoa is consumed in countries
that do not produce it. Europe consumes 48 %, North America, 24 %, South Ameri-
ca, 9 % while Africa consumes only 3 % of global cocoa (Pipitone
2012
).
Total area planted to cocoa globally is 9.5 Mha with a total production of 4.2 Mt
(Table
8.1
). Globally, more than 90 % of cocoa is produced by small cocoa growers
on 2-5 ha in Africa (Anon
2012c
) and 1-2 ha in Sulawesi.
Average productivity per hectare is around 300-470 kg dry bean/ha/year
(Table
8.1
; Anon
2012c
). High yielding cocoa has been achieved in Malaysia with
cocoa plantations producing a 5 year average of 3.2 tonnes/ha/year in late 90s
(Lass
1999
). The highest producing plantations are mainly irrigated plantations in
Ecuador and Brazil and some smallholder farms in Asia that have adopted high
yielding clonal cocoa, producing between 2-4 t/ha/year.
From Forest Tree to Small-Holder Crop, to Plantation and Back to Small
Holder Crop
The centre of origin of cocoa is the Amazon basin rainforests with a secondary
distribution in central America, southern Mexico and the Caribbean, between 20 °S
and 20 °N of the equator. The high genetic variability that occurs in these regions
can be used in varietal improvement (Bartley
2005
). In Central America, cocoa was
cultivated mainly in Mexico for more than 2000 years by Mayas and other peoples
from this region (Wood and Lass
1985
). Cocoa was also highly appreciated by the
Aztecs who considered it to be a sacred tree, with health-improving properties, used
in traditional ceremonies (Lupein
1999
). The first recorded use of cocoa was as a
fresh, frothy beverage called “chocolatl” prepared from ground cocoa beans with
added spices. When cocoa was “discovered” by the Spanish in 1502 on Guanaja,
an island off the coast of Honduras, it was already a well-developed, commercial
crop, with dry cocoa beans used as a currency by the local inhabitants (Wood and
Lass
1985
; Dand
2011
). Cocoa beans were taken to Europe by Spanish sailors, and
during the following centuries, were widely used as a chocolate drink until 1847
when the first block chocolate was produced in UK by J.S.Fry & Sons (Coe and
Coe
2000
).
Despite cultivation of cocoa trees starting more than 2000 years ago, domesti-
cation and improvement of cocoa varieties was very slow. Even now, more than
70 % of cultivated cocoa trees are unimproved, wild types (Eskes
2006
). Most small
growers still identify their best trees and use their seeds as planting materials, as
they did some 2000 years ago.
