Preserving the future of cocoa through clever cocoa science

Cocoa is at the core of beloved sweet treats across the world and is key to the livelihoods of millions of people worldwide. However, climate change and disease now mean the future of cocoa is under threat like never before. To preserve the future of cocoa, 玛氏食品 is leading the way in the cocoa science sphere to ensure that we make the cacao plant itself more resilient to risks it faces today, and in the future.

To discuss the dangers cocoa faces today and how we can use science to mitigate these risks, I recently sat down with Joanna Hwu , Senior Director Cocoa Plant Science at Mars, and Professor Alan Bennett from University of California, Davis (UC Davis) to delve deeper into the many ways science is helping to make the cacao plant stronger than ever.

Alan kicked off our discussion by explaining why cocoa is under threat today, and what the future may look like if we don’t act now to protect cocoa:

“The cacao crop is threatened even in the absence of climate change. It is a very fragile crop for a few reasons. One is its susceptibility to major plant diseases. For example, in 1989, Brazil was a major global production country of cacao beans, but a single disease came in and within a year production dropped from 400,000 to less than 100,000 tonnes in a year.

“The diseases are out there, and cacao is susceptible. With climate change, this stresses the trees as the world gets hotter and dryer, and so they become even more susceptible to disease. It’s fairly predictable that if in 50 years nothing is done there will be some major disruptions.”

Using cocoa science to preserve the future of chocolate

At Mars, one of the ways we are securing the future of cocoa is through scientific research on the cocoa plant itself. Through a more thorough understanding of the genetic makeup of cacao, we are able to selectively breed plants that are more resilient in the face of climate change and diseases.

Joanna explored the ways science is helping to make cocoa more resilient:

“We are looking at plant materials that can be more resistant to drought. We are looking not only at the above-ground traits, but also the underground features such as the root system to understand how cocoa is taking up nutrients and water.

“The second area is disease management. Our disease management strategy is prevention, detection, and mitigation … for example, using AI we are developing an integrated pest management farm assistant app where growers can take their phone device into the field and use imaging technology to detect diseases on the trees.

“The third area is accelerated breeding. This is where we breed for more productive and disease-resistant plant materials using predictive data science.”

Our collaboration with UC Davis

Joanna went on to discuss the crucial work that Mars carries out in collaboration with UC Davis. She said:

“With our long history of collaboration with the university we have the use of a greenhouse infrastructure where we conduct conservation, characterisation and breeding.

“One of the big benefits of working with the university is increasing capacity building, which involves strengthening and developing news skills and exposing the scientific community to cacao so we can bring it from an ‘orphan’, very under-studied, crop to a modernised crop which can reach sustainable production.”

Facing the future

To truly save chocolate, at Mars we believe we must place more focus on, and channel resources into, more scientific study of the cocoa plant itself, using our knowledge of genetics and farm management technology to make cocoa more resilient in the face of climate change and disease.

Watch the full recording of the LinkedIn Live, here: https://www.dhirubhai.net/events/preservingthefutureofcocoathrou7097223529296793602/comments/

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