Overview

Cocoa (Theobroma cacao), the 'food of the Gods', is an important source of income for farmers (mostly smallholders) in the tropical regions around the globe. But there are serious threats to the sustainability of cocoa production systems: poor yields, ageing plantations (and farmers), low prices, lack of income for producers, expansion into natural areas, and a strong dependency on agrochemicals to deal with cocoa's many pest and disease problems. Our cocoa research focuses on four main themes:

• Cocoa mineral nutrition
• Good Agricultural Practices in cocoa
• Cocoa and living income
• Cocoa and biodiversity

We work in many of the cocoa producing countries, especially in Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ecuador and Indonesia.

Below, our cocoa projects are listed. You can also navigate directly to the Projects tab for an overview of our cocoa work, and to the Publications tab for an overview of our cocoa-related publications.

List of projects

• UKRI GCRF Trade, Development and the Environment Hub (2019-2025)
• CocoaSoils (first phase: 2018-2022)
• The WOTRO Cocoa project (2017-2021)
   

Photo credits: Lotte Woittiez