A recent study by Orozco-Aguilar et al. highlights the contributions of the CacaoFIT network—a collaborative effort among agronomists, researchers, and practitioners—to sustainable cocoa farming in Latin America and the Caribbean. By assembling data from 25 experimental field trials across diverse agroecosystems, the network explores various cacao cultivation models suitable for smallholder farmers. Key findings indicate...Read More

This study finds that using locally-selected cocoa clones can significantly boost cocoa yields. Conducted over five years in Bolivia, the research compared the performance of local clones against widely-used international varieties and found that local clones produced two to five times more cocoa beans. These clones also had larger pods and therefore required fewer pods...Read More