CHOCOLATE lovers beware: the sweet indulgence is facing a bitter crisis as the swollen shoot cacao tree virus threatens global cocoa supplies.
The rapidly spreading swollen shoot cacao virus is casting a shadow over the future of chocolate production and prompting urgent action from experts and farmers.
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Cacao trees in Ivory Coast and Ghana, West Africa, are being affected by the virus and destroying about 15-50% of the harvest.
The world’s chocolate supply comes from about 50% of the harvest in West Africa and the virus is a serious threat to it.
In just a few years, Ghana has lost more than 254 million cacao trees.
The virus makes a cacao tree unhealthy which is also affecting the dried seeds which is where chocolate is made from.
The research into the cacao virus was published in the journal PLOS ONE and the paper is titled “Cacao sustainability: The case of cacao swollen-shoot virus co-infection.”
The author of the paper Benito Chen-Charpentier, is a professor of mathematics at The University of Texas at Arlington.
“This virus is a real threat to the global supply of chocolate,” Chen-Charpentier said in a press release.
It has been complicated to get the virus under control because it is being spread by mealybugs.
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Mealybugs are pests that thrive in warm humid climates and feed on greenhouse plants/subtropical plants
They eat the leaves, buds, and flowers, which is what helps form the seeds for making chocolate.
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These pests also don’t respond well to chemicals and farmers have had to resort to expensive tree vaccines.
“Pesticides don’t work well against mealybugs,” Chen-Charpentier said.
“Leaving farmers to try to prevent the spread of the disease by cutting out infected trees and breeding resistant trees.”
However, the vaccines cause the cacao trees to yield a smaller harvest and are not exactly fixing the problem either.
But despite these efforts, Ghana has lost more than 254 million cacao trees in recent years.”
A HOPEFUL SOLUTION
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Researchers have had to get creative in their thinking for a solution to beat the mealybugs.
Chen-Charpentier discovered that mathematical data could help outsmart the pests.
He and colleagues who worked on the research developed a new strategy where farmers can plant a mix of vaccinated and unvaccinated trees a certain lengths away from each other.
The mixture helps reduce the spread and the amount trees that are getting affected without having to vaccinate every tree.
“Mealybugs have several ways of movement, including moving from canopy to canopy, being carried by ants or blown by the wind,” Chen-Charpentier said in the release.
What we needed to do was create a model for cacao growers so they could know how far away they could safely plant vaccinated trees from unvaccinated trees in order to prevent the spread of the virus while keeping costs manageable for these small farmers.
The author of the research paper Benito Chen-Charpentier, a professor of mathematics at The University of Texas at Arlington
“What we needed to do was create a model for cacao growers so they could know how far away they could safely plant vaccinated trees from unvaccinated trees in order to prevent the spread of the virus while keeping costs manageable for these small farmers.”
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“While still experimental, these models are exciting because they would help farmers protect their crops while helping them achieve a better harvest.
“This is good for the farmers’ bottom line, as well as our global addiction to chocolate.”
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