| November 5, 2003,
just-food.com: West Africa’s cocoa production
is the subject of an international development consortium.
The goal of the consortium would be to promote sustainable
production by making supplies more predictable for processors
and profitable for producers, easing the sector’s
recent price squeeze.
The partnership includes the United Nations Development
Program, Conservation International and the World Cocoa
Foundation, which have been working with Mars, Hershey,
Nestlé and the Alliance of Cocoa Producing Countries,
among others.
These groups plan to promote crop diversification and
the rehabilitation of degraded lands, while helping
growers introduce technology and receive training. Current
monoculture methods rely on fertilizers, encouraging
pests and disease, which can destroy 30% of crops, threatening
cocoa supplies.
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