Proceedings of the International Symposium on Cocoa Research 2022
Introduction
The second edition of the International Symposium on Cocoa research (ISCR) was co-organized by the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) and the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD) from 5-7 December 2022. The theme for this edition was “Innovations to support market development and promote the sustainability of cocoa farming for better farmer income”.
The symposium attracted approximately 600 attendees from around 250 organizations, including research institutions, private and public sector institutions, government and civil society organisations. 40 nationalities were represented.
In terms of cocoa research, 400 abstracts were received and reviewed by the ISCR Scientific Committee. Out of these, 75 were selected for oral presentations and 135 for poster presentations.
The objectives of this edition were:
-
- Provide a platform for the cocoa community and scientists to exchange on the latest research findings
- Present advances in technology and innovations in the cocoa sector
- Analyse the potential impact of research results for the cocoa sector and farmer income
- Provide practical and relevant recommendations to the cocoa sector
- Disseminate the results of this second edition of the ISCR
- Agree on priorities for collective action
In addition, the symposium focused on three thematic areas as follows:
Thematic Area 1 (T1) - Cocoa Cultivation: Innovative Approaches and Practices for Sustainable Production
- Integrated Pest management and GAP techniques (Shade and irrigation; improved crop, pest and diseases, shade, soil, water and soil/fertility management)
- Farm rehabilitation techniques
- Knowledge of the genome and of the functioning of the plant
- Farmers techniques and know how
- Institutional, policy management systems
Thematic Area 2 (T2) - Sustainable Cocoa and Climate Change: The way forward through Mitigation and Adaptation
- Renewable energy, clean water, health, food security and improved nutrition for the cocoa farmers
- Impact of climate changes on cocoa farming, on the spatial repartition of cocoa zones in the world
- Rescue, characterisation and exploitation of biodiversity for varietal creation in a context of climate change
- Diversification techniques (other crops, non-farm activities) – environnemental and economic perspective
- Agroforestry, sylvo-pasture, aquaculture techniques (agronomy, ecology and the economics thereof)
- Reforestation /Afforestation programmes
- Payments for Environmental Services (PES): myths and reality
- Landscape approach
- Training and capacity building on climate smart agriculture techniques
- Climate information and surveillance systems
- Other new climate adaptation techniques; energy efficient technologies along the value chain
Thematic Area 3 (T3) - Innovations to support Cocoa Processing & Market Development
- Food safety compliance systems (pesticides and other contaminants) of cocoa products (mapping and agronomic solutions, breeding and genetic manipulations, remediation techniques etc)
- Innovative processing methods and transformation processes
- Valorisation of quality attributes (The multidimensionality of cocoa quality -sensory and aromatic analysis, consumer preferences, improvement strategies, differentiation and enhancement of quality certification, quality recognition programmes etc)
- Valorisation of nutritional attributes of cocoa products
- Valorisation of cocoa by-products for food and non-food products (candies, fertilizers, biogas and digestates, cosmetics, etc).
- Other innovations (packaging, etc)
- Traceability systems
- Access to micro credit, crop insurance coverage, financial risk management
- Digital applications
Additional information about the Symposium, as well as oral and poster presentations and reports can be found in the dedicated website of the International Symposium con Cocoa Research.
Scientific Committee
All research papers presented at the Symposium were reviewed and evaluated by a Scientific Committee composed of the following members.
| MEMBER | ORGANIZATION / INSTITUTION |
|---|---|
| Dr. Bruno Efombagn (Chairperson) | IRAD, Cameroon |
| Yeirme Yaneth Jaimes SUAREZ | Organization / Institution |
| Dr Verina Ingram | Wageningen University, The Netherlands |
| Dr. Philippe BASTIDE | BCC&C, France |
| Dr Michelle End | Cocoa Research Association (CRA), UK |
| Mathias TAHI | CNRA, Côte d’Ivoire |
| Karina GRAMACHO | CEPEC/CEPLAC, Brazil |
| Frances BEKELE | CRC, Trinidad & Tobago |
| Christian BUNN | Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, Germany |
| Dr Christian Cilas | Centre de coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD), France |
| Brigitte LALIBERTE | Cocao of Excellence, Rome, Italy Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT |
| Dr Soetanto Abdoellah | Indonesian Cocoa and Coffee Research Institute
(ICCRI), Indonesia |
Proceedings of the International Symposium on Cocoa Research 2022
ISCR 2022 Proceedings
2nd International Symposium on Cocoa Research
5 – 7 December 2023.
The full document will be available soon
ISBN ICCO: ISBN – 978-2-9563177-0-8
ISBN CIRAD: ISBN – 978-2-87614-798-0
Publisher: International Cocoa Organization ICCO / French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development CIRAD
The full papers of the research results presented at ISCR 2022 can be found below. The papers are grouped by thematic areas. Click on the DOI to open the full document.
DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in the scientific papers, articles and presentations in these proceedings are that of the authors alone and not those of the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO).
| wdt_ID | ABSTRACT TITLE | AUTHOR | CO AUTHORS | THEMATIC AREA | DOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Genetics resources to study Moniliophthora perniciosa | Mr Rayanne França Pereira | Mr Ceslaine Santos Barbosa, Mr Franco Jesus Andrade, Mr João Pedro Alves de Almeida Takahashi, Ms Karina Peres Gramacho | Cocoa Cultivation: Innovative Approaches and Practices for Sustainable Production | 10.5281/zenodo.8316240 |
| 2 | Molecular chaperone modulation in cocoa leads to plant resistance to Moniliophthora perniciosa | Dr Fatima Cerqueira Alvim | Ms Grazielle da Mota Alcantara, Dr Marcio Gilberto Cardoso Costa, Dr Carlos Priminho Pirovani, Ms Karina Peres Gramacho | Cocoa Cultivation: Innovative Approaches and Practices for Sustainable Production | 10.5281/zenodo.8316259 |
| 3 | Infestation dynamics of mealybug vectors (Hemiptera : Pseudococcidae) of the Cocoa swollen shoot virus (CSSV) in young cocoa plots surrounded by barrier crops | Dr Régis Babin | Mr Alain Déron Koffi, Dr Pierre Walet N'guessan, Dr Franck Zokou Oro, Dr Loreleï Guéry, Prof Mauricette S-W. Ouali N'goran | Cocoa Cultivation: Innovative Approaches and Practices for Sustainable Production | 10.5281/zenodo.10207810 |
| 4 | The « BarCo » project: for the promotion of barrier crops to curb the expansion of the Cocoa swollen shoot virus in Côte d’Ivoire | Dr Régis Babin | Dr Franck Zokou Oro, Dr Mathias Gnion Tahi, Dr Pierre Walet N'guessan, Dr Emmanuelle Muller, Mr Thomas Wibaux | Cocoa Cultivation: Innovative Approaches and Practices for Sustainable Production | 10.5281/zenodo.10207841 |
| 5 | Effect of temperature on the Cacao swollen shoot virus (CSSV, Badnavirus) vection by the mealybug Planococcus citri to cocoa seedlings in the laboratory | Dr Régis Babin | Miss Chloé Cailleaud, Dr Bernard Dufour, Mr Frédéric Dedieu, Dr Nicolas Sauvion, Dr Fabienne Ribeyre | Cocoa Cultivation: Innovative Approaches and Practices for Sustainable Production | 10.5281/zenodo.10207873 |
| 6 | Past domestication of T. cacao in Latin America revealed by paleo-genomics and methylxanthines analysis | Dr Claire LANAUD | Mrs Hélène VIGNES, Mr José UTGE, Mr Gilles VALETTE, Mrs Mariella GARCIA CAPUTI, Mrs Natalia Angarita | Cocoa Cultivation: Innovative Approaches and Practices for Sustainable Production | 10.5281/zenodo.10208446 |
| 7 | The morphological and genetic diversity of the cacao pathogen Moniliophthora perniciosa in the Peruvian Upper Amazon | Dr Jorge Ronny Díaz-Valderrama | Mr Tito A. Ramos-Carrasco, Mr Santos Triunfo Leiva-Espinoza | Cocoa Cultivation: Innovative Approaches and Practices for Sustainable Production | 10.5281/zenodo.10207912 |
| 8 | Barriers to cocoa replanting in Western-Ghana | Ms Selma van der Haar | Mr Reuben Ottou, Mr William McFarland, Ms Emily Gallagher, Mr George Schoneveld | Cocoa Cultivation: Innovative Approaches and Practices for Sustainable Production | 10.5281/zenodo.10208472 |
| 9 | Improving cocoa beans quality by mitigating FFA level at farm gate with some farmer groups in Côte d’Ivoire | Ms Marine Marchetti | Ms Julie Lestang, Dr Kam Rigne Laossi, Mr Siaka Ko, Dr Pierre Broun | Cocoa Cultivation: Innovative Approaches and Practices for Sustainable Production | 10.5281/zenodo.10208484 |
| 10 | How many years of evaluation are needed to select new productive cocoa clones? | Dr Christian Cilas | Dr Wilbert Phillips-Mora, Dr Allan Mata-Quirós, Mr Philippe Bastide, Mr Vincent Johnson, Mr José Castillo-Fernándeza | Cocoa Cultivation: Innovative Approaches and Practices for Sustainable Production | 10.5281/zenodo.10208498 |
CONCLUSIONS
The International Symposium on Cocoa Research (ISCR 2022) attracted over 600 participants from 40 countries and 250 organizations. During this second edition, more than 400 papers were received and evaluated by the Scientific Committee, out of which 75 were selected for oral presentations and 135 for poster presentations. Over 3 days, experts from various scientific fields exchanged views on the progress achieved in cocoa research.
The symposium 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.
The symposium emphasized the need to have more innovative platforms to better share information on cocoa research and to make results of that research easily accessible to all cocoa stakeholders, particularly cocoa farmers who should be the main focus and recipients of the said results. The detailed recommendations can be found via the following link: Report of the Scientific Committee ISCR 2022.
The ICCO Secretariat expresses its sincere gratitude to the Government of France and CIRAD for hosting the symposium and to the sponsors for their financial support that has contributed immensely to the success of the symposium. It thanks, in particular, the scientists, government officials, company representatives and other participants for their active contributions.
We all look forward to the next edition of the symposium at a date and place to be announced.
