A common perception is that we need pesticides and fertilizers to produce cocoa for chocolate delights. In fact: we don't!
Dr. Manuel Toledo-Hernández shows in his latest research that manual pollination, but not fertilizers and pesticides can increase cocoa yields by more than 160% in Indonesia. Farmers' income increased by almost 70%. This is good news for sustainable cocoa production. Hand pollination may help to improve yields in sustainable agroforestry systems and under unstable climatic conditions.
The work is also highly relevant to the SAT lab's work on global cocoa pollination in the Global Agroforestry Network.
You can find Manu's publication here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167880920303467 or for the pdf
here.
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