ICCO International Cocoa Symposium 2017
The International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) from 13 – 17 November 2017 brought together the global cocoa research community for its first International Symposium on Cocoa Research (ISCR 2017) in Lima, Peru.
The Symposium, jointly organized with the Government of Peru, had long been awaited, as the last edition of this type of event was held over five years ago and several relevant developments had been recorded in the cocoa sector and required wide dissemination within the scientific research community and beyond it.
The Government of Peru, a country with a rich history and strong tradition of growing fine and flavour cocoa, welcomed all participants with gracious hospitality, creating an environment for fruitful discussions and networking.
The symposium gathered about 500 participants from 37 countries.
ICCO Former Executive Director Dr Jean-Marc Anga (l) with (l-r) Scientific Committee Chair Dr Brigitte Laliberté, Peruvian Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation HE Mr Jose Manuel Hernandez and Director General of Agriculture Mr Jorge Amaya Castillo.
The main theme of ISCR 2017 was “Promoting Advances in Research to Enhance the Profitability of Cocoa Farming”. This overall theme and the seven thematic areas formed the main focus of ten keynote presentations, some ninety 90 oral presentations, and 100 poster presentations at the Symposium.
After four days of deliberations, the cocoa research community agreed on a set of key recommendations to accelerate the pace of development in the global cocoa sector, in particular as relevant to cocoa research. Climate change adaptation and mitigation, food safety and cadmium in particular were identified as major growing concerns for the cocoa sector that needed to be addressed urgently.
Generally, the Symposium emphasized the need to have more innovative platforms to better share information on cocoa research, and to make the results of that research easily accessible to all cocoa stakeholders, and particularly to cocoa farmers, who should be the main focus and recipients of these results.
A key innovation that distinguished the Symposium from previous cocoa research conferences was the introduction of a theme on socio-economic and market-related issues, which generated lively discussions with respect to technology adoption and transfer, and allowed the cocoa research community to gain important insights into the socio-economic impact of its research.
Generally, the Symposium emphasized the need to have more innovative platforms to better share information on cocoa research, and to make the results of that research easily accessible to all cocoa stakeholders, and particularly to cocoa farmers, who should be the main focus and recipients of these results.
A key innovation that distinguished the Symposium from previous cocoa research conferences was the introduction of a theme on socio-economic and market-related issues, which generated lively discussions with respect to technology adoption and transfer, and allowed the cocoa research community to gain important insights into the socio-economic impact of its research.
The Symposium was officially closed on Thursday 17 November 2017 by His Excellency Mr. Jose Manuel Hernandez, Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation. The proceedings of the symposium will be published very shortly.
The ICCO Secretariat and the entire cocoa research community are grateful to Mars Chocolate UK Limited and Cocoa Research (UK) for their generous financial support that contributed immensely to the success of the Symposium.
ICCO Executive Director Dr Jean-Marc Anga gave an undertaking that his Organization would ensure that cocoa scientists would never again be deprived of such a global platform to share their knowledge. He confirmed the commitment of the ICCO to organize subsequent editions of the Symposium and stated that the date and venue of the next International Symposium on Cocoa Research would be announced very soon, after consultations with relevant stakeholders and ICCO Member states.
Click here to download the Report from the 2017 ISCR Scientific Committee for the 7 Thematic Areas
Click here to download the Proceedings of the 2017 ISCR
PROGRAM AND PRESENTATIONS
PLENARY SESSION 1
Opening of the ISCR 2017
- Welcome speech by SEM. Ricardo V. Luna Mendoza, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Peru
- ICCO Executive Director Introductory Speech by Dr. Jean-Marc Anga, Executive Director of the International Cocoa Organization
- Inauguration by SEM. Juan Manuel Hernandez Calderon, Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation of Peru
- “The Peruvian cocoa sector” by Mr. Jorge Amaya Castillo, Director General of Agriculture, Chairman of the local organizing committee and focal point
- “The oldest cocoa in the world discovered in the Upper Amazon of Peru and Ecuador” Presentation by Dr. Segundo Quirino Olivera Núñez
- Introduction to the ISCR 2017: Programme and logistics by Ms. Brigitte Laliberte, Chairperson of the ISCR Scientific Committee
PLENARY SESSION 2
Thematic Session 4 – Climate change adaptation and mitigation – CHAIR – Brigitte Laliberte
Keynote presentation
- Paul Hadley, Overview of advances in cacao and climate change research and future perspectives-University of Reading (UoR), UK
Oral presentations
- Christian Bunn, Global climate change impacts on cocoa -International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Colombia
- Fiona Lahive, The impacts of climate change variables on vegetative and reproductive development of six genotypes of cacao-University of Reading (UoR), UK
- Viviana Medina, Exploring cacao genetic diversity for resilience to climate change – validating or contradicting current predictive models of production suitability – Bioversity International, Costa Rica
Thematic Session 4 – Climate change adaptation and mitigation continued – CHAIR – Verina Ingram
Oral presentations
- Virupax Baligar, Impact of drought on morphological, physiological and nutrient use efficiency of elite Cacao genotypes from Bahia- Beltaville Agricultural Research Center (USDA, ARS), USA
- Paula Bermeo Fuquene, Evaluation of current and future water requirements, under climate change scenarios in cocoa crops in Nilo Cundinamarca- Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Colombia
Conference dinner offered by the Government of Peru
