Cocoa is among the most popular crops in the world, and a new study has shown that to increase its yield, as well as the income of small scale farmers, hand pollination is a better option to adopt instead of the intensive use of agrochemicals.
Cocoa is among the most popular crops in the world, and a new study has shown that to increase its yield, as well as the income of small scale farmers, hand pollination is a better option to adopt instead of the intensive use of agrochemicals.
Cocoa's Popularity and Importance
One thing to be presently said about cocoa is that its demand is high all over the world, and is only getting higher.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic affected cocoa demand negatively, its demand has been increasing steadily at 2% per year. Still, the outlook remains good for the long term and demand is expected to increase until at least 2025.
With this in mind, it thus becomes important to focus on how to efficiently improve cocoa production.
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Cocoa Reproduction
The cocoa plant needs insects to cross-pollinate it in order to bear fruit. Currently, its main pollinators still have to be conclusively determined, and it is not clear how wasps, flies, or other insects can be induced to pollinate it in a natural manner. Midges have been identified as its pollinators.
In the natural setting, more than 9 out of 10 cocoa flowers do not become fruits because no insects visit them. It shows how intensive agricultural production with the use of agrochemicals may not be the best method for production to be efficient or bountiful.
Cocoa is among the most popular crops in the world, and a new study has shown that to increase its yield, as well as the income of small scale farmers, hand pollination is a better option to adopt instead of the intensive use of agrochemicals.
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Manual Pollination Versus Agrochemical Use
University of Göttingen researchers compared the effectiveness of fertilizers and pesticides versus manual pollination. They conducted the study in agroforestry set up in Indonesia.
Their field trial has been well replicated, and the results show that the latter is better. They concluded that cocoa yield and the income of cocoa farmers are better served by manual pollination instead of agrochemical application and methods.
Their findings are presented in a publication in the Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment journal, entitled: "Hand pollination, not pesticides or fertilizers, increases cocoa yields and farmer income," authored by Manuel Toledo-Hernández and colleagues. The research team also collaborated with other scientists as well as students from Universitas Tadulako in Palu, Indonesia.
The scientists discovered that hand or manual pollination caused a large yield increase of 161 percent. They computed the costs involved in manual pollination and found that small farmers can increase their income by 69% if they opted to use this farming method. The use of more fertilizers and pesticides resulted in no increase in yield.
Researchers' Recommendations
According to the first author and University of Göttingen Department of Agroecology Ph.D. student Manuel Toledo-Hernández, their study concluded that intensifying agroecology may become a successful venture by taking advantage of natural, biological processes, or alternately, utilizing innovative techniques like hand pollination.
This study was conducted under the supervision of Agroecology department chair Professor Teja Tscharntke and China's Westlake University professor Thomas Cherico Wanger. According to them, the lower levels of yield were due to lack of pollination, which is having a significant negative effect on a lot of tropical and temperate crops.
They advise that instead of the intensive use of agrochemicals, hand pollination must be considered in future agricultural endeavors to increase the production of these crops, not the least of which is cocoa.
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