Sustainable cocoa production through grafting

Cacao grafting is a useful measure to rejuvenate cacao plants, increasing their yield and profits with minimal impact on biodiversity, according to an article published by the University of Göttingen, Germany, in January 2024.

The productivity of cacao trees decreases with time, forcing farmers to renew their plantations by either cutting down the old trees or establishing a new crop elsewhere. Frequently, new plantations are established in areas of the forest that are thinned out to accommodate new, young cacao trees. However, this comes with high economic and ecological costs. An alternative approach is to graft highly productive and native cultivars onto the existing older cacao trees.

Cacao grafting consists of implanting a shoot from a promising variety into an adult cacao tree. By making use of the adult root system, grafting young and fresh branches completely replaces the old tree crown within a short time. 

Researchers from the Universities of Göttingen and Würzburg in Germany, together with the organisation Bioversity International and local farmers in Peru, were able to show that grafting increased crop yields by 45 per cent after just two years. The effects on biodiversity were also positive, as arthropods such as spiders, mites and insects quickly became accustomed to the grafting. While the population of predatory arthropods in particular initially declined, presumably due to the lack of a voluminous tree crown, it was able to recover within just six months. This recovery is important for the control of insect pests in cocoa plantations, as predatory arthropods can limit pest outbreaks.

(University of Göttingen/ile)

Read more on the website of the University of Göttingen