Indian farmers choose cocoa amid global shortage

Naveena Krishna Shastry C.G., aged 47, owns a 20-acre large multi-crop farm in Punacha, Karnataka. Here, amidst his primary crops of coconut and areca nuts, he grows cacao trees. The Campco chocolate factory, around 15 kilometres from the farm, is one of his biggest customers. He also sells to a few artisanal chocolate brands.

Naveena’s father, C.K. Gangadhara Shastry, began to grow cacao on their farm 50 years ago. “Cadbury India (a commercial chocolate brand) was helping farmers to start growing cacao back in the 1970s. Since it is an intercrop and grows well when planted between rows of coconut and areca nut, my father decided to start growing it,” he shares.

Cadbury India (now Mondelez India) spread cacao cultivation to Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu after a pilot project in Kerala where they managed to grow cacao successfully on an experimental farm in 1965. India however, is not among the world’s largest producers of cocoa (from the cacao trees) and until recently, India had been importing to fulfil around 70% of its cocoa requirements.

Around 70% of the world’s supply of cocoa comes from the leading cocoa-producing countries of West Africa. However, recently, West Africa faced a cocoa crop failure in Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon – countries that account for a majority of the world’s cocoa. Challenges such as ageing trees and disease coupled with erratic rainfall and a heat wave inhibited the growth of cocoa flowers and pods and resulted in a massive shortage of supply and a price increase. Since November 2023, global cocoa prices have been on the rise too from their erstwhile more or less steady price of $2,500 per metric ton to $4,000 per metric ton and then to $10,000 per metric ton in May 2024. Indian cocoa prices showed a corresponding increase from Rs. 25 per kilogram in January this year to Rs. 1,000 per kilogram in May 2024.

Given the change in global weather conditions and the resulting reduced supply, India’s area under cacao tree plantations, is now on the rise. The number of farmers growing the crop and the area under cultivation have grown. According to the 2020-21 data from the Directorate of Cashewnut and Cocoa Development, Andhra Pradesh has the highest yield with 10,903 MT of annual cocoa production followed by Kerala with 9,647 MT.

What makes India suitable to cultivate cocoa?

West Africa has been experiencing an increase in average temperatures since 2023 and in early 2024, the temperatures went up to 41°C which is way higher than the preferred temperature range for cacao trees which is between 21°C and 30°C. “Cacao plants love humid weather. The ideal temperature conditions for growing cacao in India are a minimum temperature of 24-28°C and a maximum of 32-34°C,” says Minimol J.S., professor and head of the Cocoa Research Centre, Kerala Agriculture University (KAU) in Thrissur, who describes cacao as a “less effort, more income crop”.

Naveena adds, “Cacao is a shade-loving tree that grows very well in the shade of the taller areca nut and nutmeg trees.” For this reason, growing this crop allows farmers to earn a lot more with their current land.

“Cacao farming is water-intensive and cacao grows best in regions that have over 2,000 mm of rainfall annually. In India there are no real issues of bringing more area under cacao farming because it is always done as a multi-crop,” Mayoor Shetty, cacao farmer and chocolate maker from Mangaluru, tells Mongabay India.

However, India too has increasing temperatures and heat waves and researchers are working to ensure that newer plant varieties can be resilient to extreme heat. The Kerala Agriculture University (KAU) is developing over 600 varieties of cacao plants that have been planted in the fields in Kerala at the university and in Andhra Pradesh in other farms. Scientists are identifying germplasm from exotic cacao species and crossing them with existing high-performing varieties to give higher yields. Minimol, who has a Ph.D. in plant breeding and genetics, has been focusing on creating drought-tolerant varieties that have withstood temperatures of even 40°C in Andhra Pradesh earlier this year. “At KAU, we maintain a large germplasm and this is used to develop a wide genetic base of varieties which make it possible for the cacao plants to thrive even in adverse conditions like temperatures of 38-40 degrees Celsius.”

Minimol also adds that all of the cocoa grown in Andhra Pradesh has been supplied by KAU. “The global average production is 0.25 kilogram per year per tree. In Kerala, we get 2.5 kilograms per year per tree. In Andhra and Telangana, we are even getting a yield of four or five kilograms per tree per year. This shows the genetic potential of the crop,” she shares.

Cultivating cacao sustainably

When farmed sustainably, farmers say that cacao plants provide a good yield along with social and economic benefits for the regions they are grown in. Partha Varanashi, a regenerative farmer who runs Varanashi organic farms in Karnataka, has been advocating for more farmers in the region to start growing cacao. “The cacao tree is not only a great multi-crop, but also grows at a low level of seven to 10 feet and provides a lot of mulch for the soil. In Africa, they grow cacao as a mono-crop, which is problematic,” he compares.

“While there is no (research) paper done on top soil enrichment due to organic farming, we have seen an increase in yield per tree from the time we were farming conventionally before 1990s to going organic at our farm,” shares Varanashi. At his farm, bio-fertilisers and bio-control agents are used to tackle pests. “If the farmers grow it [cacao] organically, they can earn a much better price for it,” says Varanashi.

Varanashi is also attempting to employ an agroforestry approach to growing cacao. “A cacao tree growing wild in the forest can live to be a hundred years old. At our farm, we have one 65-year-old cacao tree. The average life of the trees at other farms is 25 years,” he says. Studies in other parts of the world have also identified climate change mitigation benefits in planting cacao as part of agroforestry systems.

Shetty who runs a cacao farm called Sadhu’s Farm in Mangaluru also claims that they don’t use chemical pesticides. “Our trees are younger, therefore smaller in size. It is usually the larger ones that have a higher chance of pests; those and the grafted varieties. The plants that are grown from seedlings have a better chance of survival.”

The need for training and upskilling

For farmers growing other crops, planting cacao increases their earning potential, which has encouraged many to adopt cacao farming. “In May this year, the chocolate factories were paying around Rs. 1,000 per kilogram for dried cocoa beans. Now, (in September 2024), the price has stabilised to around Rs. 550 per kilogram. The Campco factory close to us is buying from us at this price. This is still three times what it was last year, so we are earning well,” says Shastry. He and his family also turn their cocoa into value-added products, such as sweet cocoa bits, salted cocoa bits, cocoa nibs, powder and butter, which they retail from their farm.

Since 2020, various online and offline trainings have been conducted for Indian farmers about efficient techniques for drying and fermenting cacao beans, allowing them to earn a higher price. Shastry says, “During the COVID-19 pandemic when our work had almost come to a standstill, Cadbury’s India and the nearby Campco factory had conducted various trainings with us to show us how to dry, ferment and roast the cacao beans. It was then that we started making and selling our own products from which we were earning good margins.”

“The Central Plantation Crops Research Institute (CPCRI) runs trainings for us sometimes. They are very approachable and are happy to share information with those who need it,” adds Shetty. Conversations with both farmers as well as chocolate makers revealed that there is a demand for training and upskilling, development of more resilient varieties, and the setting up of village-level processing units.

Read more: Community-based natural farming outshines other farming practices in Andhra Pradesh

Banner image: Cacao beans drying at Grandpa’s Farm, Karnataka. Image by Naveenakrishna Shastry.