Safianu Moro | Managing Director Serendipalm

Presentation: It's BEAN too hot. Climate, cocoa and mixed cultivation

Safianu Moro, Managing Director Serendipalm

Why chocolate is at risk and what solutions mixed cultivation offers.

Chocolate at risk? The climate crisis and monocultures from yesteryear are jeopardising cocoa cultivation and the livelihoods of small farmers. Practitioners from Bolivia and Ghana report on a solution - dynamic agroforestry.

Most of the cocoa that is used in our chocolate is grown by small farmers. Unproductive, poorly-maintained monocultures and increasing drought and heat result in diminishing yields. Farmers are dependent on a few cash crops and suffer from price fluctuations. Dynamic agroforestry (DAF) offers solutions: It combines a variety of plant species in a forest that has been created according to natural principles and produces high overall yields. This ecosystem does not require any external fertilisers or pesticides and increases soil fertility. This increases and stabilises the farmers' food supply and income. At the same time, the trees bind more CO2 per hectare than monocultures, thereby counteracting climate change.

Safianu Moro, Managing Director of Serendipalm, Dr Joachim Milz, from the consulting firm Ecotop in Bolivia and Ute Eisenlohr, from Dr. Bronner's, report on their DAF experiences in Ghana, the Ivory Coast, Bolivia, and Ecuador. We will show you how, with great commitment, dynamic agroforestry systems are being developed in the global South, and let you in on what local cultivation is all about.