Code:
ATN/RF-16338-RG2
Initiative:
Seed fund
FONTAGRO Amount:
USD 30.000
Counterpart Amount:
USD 150.411
Execution time
12 Months
Total Amount:
USD 180.411
Participating countries:
Ecuador Ecuador Belgium Belgium Colombia Colombia Costa Rica Costa Rica Dominican Republic Dominican Republic Peru Peru
Funding source:
FONTAGRO Amount 17% Other agencies 0% Counterpart Amount 83%

Executive Summary

Cocoa (Theobroma cacao L) is one of the main “commodities” marketed in the world as a raw material for the production of food, beverages and other industrial products. In Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), this crop has a history linked to millions of family producers in the Andean Region, Central America, the Caribbean and Brazil. This crop is key to food security, since it is the main source of income for producers, as well as a viable option for climate change adaptation as a replacement for other crops (coffee and bananas). It has great potential for linking up with the private sector and developing new markets and marketing channels with premium value.

The LAC cocoa sector faces great challenges in the coming decades, especially in order to position itself in the segment of fine quality and aroma cocoa. These challenges are technological, organizational and institutional in nature. The most important technological challenge is sustainably increasing productivity. Among potential solutions are the development of materials resistant to local pests, integrated disease management strategies (causing 30% to 40% of production losses), improving the management of the agroforestry cocoa system, the measurement of cadmium in the environment and in grains, the generation of key traceable information for quality certification and access to value markets.

The objective of this seed fund is to create a multi-agency cocoa platform that strengthens LAC's position as a net producer and exporter of quality cocoa. The platform will promote the exchange of knowledge and experiences and facilitate the elaboration of a wide-ranging regional project, involving public-private, national, regional and international institutions, to comprehensively address technological, organizational and institutional issues of the value chain. cocoa. This platform will be identified as "Cacao 2030-2050".

The technological solution

Development of an interdisciplinary, multi-stakeholder cooperation platform that includes the largest number of stakeholders in the cocoa value chain

Results

  • A proposal agreed between the member institutions of the platform
  • A baseline document on the cocoa situation in the region

Beneficiaries

Farmers, technicians and researchers related to cocoa in the region

Sustainable Development Goals

No poverty Responsible consumption and production Partnerships for the goals

Main donors

Participating Organizations

Executor
  • Escuela Politécnica del Litoral (ESPOL) - Ecuador
Co-executor
  • Corporación Colombiana de Investigación Agropecuaria (AGROSAVIA) - Colombia
  • Instituto Nacional de Innovación y Transferencia en Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA) - Costa Rica
  • Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Agropecuarias (INIAP) - Ecuador
  • Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza (CATIE) - Costa Rica
  • International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) - Colombia
  • Instituto Nacional de Innovación Agraria (INIA) - Perú
  • Instituto Dominicano de Investigaciones Agropecuarias y Forestales (IDIAF) - República Dominicana
  • FCIA - Bélgica

Graphics and data

Financing by country (in USD)
FONTAGRO Amount Other agencies Counterpart Amount

Geolocated Map

Researchers

Project leader Ecuador

Ramón Espinel

Researcher

Manuel Carrillo

Researcher

Victor Sanchez

Researcher

Katerine Orbe

Researcher

Abiel Gutierrez

Researcher

Alina Camacho

Sponsors
BID
IICA
With the support of
Fondo Coreano de Alianza para el Conocimiento en Tecnología e Innovación (KPK)