Draft Meeting Summary

Martin Gilmour

Mars

Opening Session

Opening Session

• Monday– Cacao in the Philippines– Production trends from ICCO, consumption growing– Enthusiasm for cacao growing in the Philippines– Where Philippines cacao might go in the next 10 years

• Tuesday– Lots of players risen to the 2010 1mt call– Latin America growing, Asia not (production)– Turn around Sulawesi decline, 3x productivity at scale– Attract the next generation farmer– Research, technology transfer, cocoa doctors,

successful professional farmers

Topic IIntegrated Pest Management

1. Cocoa pod borer: Current recommended control measures and

farmers practices in the region

• Workable solution drawn from: frequent complete harvesting, sanitation, fertilizer, sleeving, insecticides (nozzle), more tolerant varieties

• Full package needs to be used, not parts• Sleeving the gold standard ? But, labour,

environment…• Need farmer adoption, not just training• Is VSD now the greater threat ?

2. CPB control methods – results of ongoing projects and potential new

research projects• Artificial diet progressing

• Biology of trichomes, kairomones and pheromones slowly being worked out

• Green coffee extract shows promise

• Promising new insecticides

• Promising new clones

• Need for harmonised protocol to measure losses

• Need more data on effect on CPB infestation through leaving husk

3. Management of VSD and Phytophthora

• Change in VSD symptoms and “behaviour” over time (pathogen, host, environment?)

• Cover seedlings, manage by pruning, tolerant planting material

• VSD geographical spread still a mystery• Get rid of Phytophtora infected pods• Insects are attracted to rotten pods and can spread BP• Manage by more resistant planting material, sanitation,

soil health, fungicides• Use low flow narrow cone angle nozzles• Biological sleeving, Trichoderma, bio-fungicides

4. News on Helopeltis control methods + Gaps in IPM research and research needed

• Vietnam – different cropping systems cause different Helopeltis infestation ?

– Crop diversification could be way forward ?

• Understand biology, ecology more to point towards solutions

• Is there a water stress link ?

• Pheromone research could be worthwhile (check work done already, NRI)

Topic I: Integrated Pest ManagementDiscussion - Research needs

• CPB – need harmonised protocol/methodology to measure losses

• Effect of insecticides on pollinators• Ideal types of spraying regimes for CPB control• Pod husk – keep on farm but what’s the effect on CPB,

Black Pod, get data (also financial impacts)– Trenching ?

• What are best ways to manage soil OM, motivate farmers• What are qualitative measures for soil health

– Cocoa yield– Microbes, diversity– worms

Topic I: Integrated Pest ManagementDiscussion

• VSD

– Effect of pruning regimes as a VSD control measure (+ fertilizer)

– Try to develop a screen for tolerance/susceptibility (breeding tool)

• Black Pod

– Convincing farmers - try out IPDM on mini-blocks, eg. 25 trees on an individual farm

Topic IIQuality Issues in Asia/Pacific Cocoa

Producing Countries

5. Quality and food safety issues

• Ongoing work on GAP for flavour quality, pesticides, Ochratoxin A, PAH, heavy metal uptake

• ECA, Caobisco, FCC members set up WG on quality and productivity

• Projects funded to make a difference (Cd, CSSV, quality manual)

• What could be an Asian project ?• CocoaSafe project building capacity in Indonesia,

Malaysia, finishing up in PNG• New pesticides manual (ICCO website)

– Essential for sustainable intensification

6. Cocoa quality issues in the region and suggested solutions

• High use of pesticides by farmers – enough information on application, safety ?

• Some activity on checking fertiliser and pesticide quality, counterfeiting

• Cadmium detectable in some bean origins, localities

• Buying wet beans centralises quality control, reduces poor quality issues

• Smoke/PAH contamination still a concern

Topic II: Quality Issues in Asia/Pacific Cocoa Producing Countries

Discussion• Countries should decide on target market –

butter/powder, liquor, fine, certified, internal, etc.

• Careful thought about getting into fine cocoa market

• Explore all options – eg. 50% liquor, 30% butter/powder, 10% fine, 10% internal consumption

• Be mindful of new and changing import regulations

• Newer countries look at a Cocoa Board style system –model of how to control and support quality?

• Market differentials already reward quality

• Clearer quality messages for farmers who aren’t necessarily cocoa/choc consumers

Topic IIISoil Management and Soil Nutrition

7. Cocoa nutrition and importance of organic matter

• Low or high intensity growing conditions, conservative or dynamic agroforestry

• 2x weight of leaves as pods… (“more fruits, less tree”)• Low level photosynthesis and transpiration “engine”• Fertilizer to meet specific nutrition needs• Aim for 100% productive trees• Organic matter crucial

– Biological, physical and chemical functions– How to get adequate soil OM for optimal cacao productivity

• Growing portfolio of trials, case studies of fertilizer effect– Philippines, Vietnam (biochar), Indonesia (Tarengge, goats), but

not PNG !

8. Fertilisers used for cocoa in the region

• “61% of farmers don’t get advice on fertilizer use”• Fake fertilizers confirmed as junk…• “most recent fertilizer advice is from 1980s”• Good genetics first, then fertilizer• Vietnam, 100% farmer fertilizer usage• Over use of leaf analysis is questionable…• Role for official bodies (govt?) to monitor

fertilizer quality• Set up INFERTICAO (International Fertilizer for

Cacao working group), meet this PM !

9. Recommendations to farmers for improved soil management and high

productivity • Need cocoa to be competitive with other crops

– Viable in the long term– Offer a living wage– Attract professional farmers

• More data needed on shade• Research needed on fertilizer application, also fertilizers of the future,

regional/farm specific• Develop “fertilizer ready farms”

– Over 800kg already– GAP and correct tree density– And, and ? First task for INFERTICAO…

• Develop tools to show farmers soil condition– productivity– worms– Smell– Other ?

10. Farm management for improved cocoa production

• Improve farmer understanding of the market• Good examples of cocoa plus rubber, banana• Australia heading towards 58th world cocoa

producing country (no. 1 for trellis cocoa)• Inexpensive intensification example in Vietnam• Sustainable modernization

– Fertigation– Canopy architecture– Mechanization

• In the future, flowering/pollination, decision support tools, individual tree management

Topic IV Cocoa Breeding and Planting

Materials

11. Cocoa breeding and clonal selections

• CacaoNet, genetic resources - funding need and start of global ABS consortium

• PNG – new nurseries, bud wood gardens in the provinces. Testing for CPB resistance

• Vietnam – imported new clones, evaluate using 4 locations. Share with WASI

• India – 5 varieties released, looking at water limited conditions. 5 state multi location trials

• Philippines – 102 germplasm collection, crosses with UF18. New clones like USM CH2

• Indonesia – Fine cocoa DR clones. Bulk cocoa, select for resistance to VSD, CPB. Farmer selections MCC01, 02.

• Malaysia – fingerprinting germplasm collection. 53 clones available. Look for markers for CPB resistance.

Discussion

• Both CPB, VSD cant be grown outside host, constraint for breeding, always dependent on field observations

• Enough being done on Helopeltis resistance?

• How to evaluate shade effect on new clones?

• Important on evaluate on farms

• Use “partial resistance” rather than “tolerance”

• How to rapidly adopt and propagate new clones ?

• Regional hybrid seed exchange– 15 000 seeds exchanged

• Ongoing• Field trials well advanced• Protocols for yield, VSD/CPB/PPR• 44 clones selected so far

• Evaluation marker technology – South Pacific– DAF, USDA-ARS, SPC– Genetic diversity of Pacific cocoa, unique materials– Phenotyping, genetic sampling, SNP marker analysis– 608 samples– Mislabelling, lots to sort out but lots of useful information

Final thoughts

• Talented, reasonably resourced research group• Best networked of any region• None of the big issues are insurmountable, lots of effort on

improving, fine tuning current best practices• Improving cacao productivity in Asia Pac is doable• This meeting has:

– Shared experiences, results, progress, problems– Agreed to work on common terminology, protocols– Set up a new global soil fertility/fertilizer group– Reinforced collaborations, maintained links

• Use this regional meeting as a template for Latin America, West Africa - Regional Cocoa Research Workshops in 2016, 2017, 2018, (absence of COPAL)

Thank you !