高清福利片

Does chocolate improve your health? For many of us, the pleasure of eating a smooth, sweet, delicate portion of melt-in-the-mouth chocolate has immediate benefits in improving psychological happiness and lowering blood pressure. Some chocolate lovers would suggest it is an essential food item, and a necessary part of daily life. 聽

Improving the health and happiness of the consumer is one thing, but what of the health and livelihoods of the people who produce our favourite luxury good?

Last time we caught up with plant pathologist, from the , the , and the , he spoke of an (cue dramatic music and bloodcurdling screams).

Cocoa is produced from the cocoa tree Theobroma cacao 鈥� literally meaning 鈥榝ood of the gods 鈥� grown in equatorial climates.

"Threats to cacao production have included pests and diseases, ageing plantations, poorly trained farmers and poorly managed trees, climate change, dependence on a narrow genetic base for plants, and easier crops to grow, such as oil palm and maize."

Increases in demand in developing economies and trends in America, Europe and Australia towards niche, single origin and dark chocolates were also cited as placing additional stress on supplies. 聽

David said the consensus was that global production needed to increase by one million tonnes per year by 2020 鈥� from about 4 million tonnes 鈥� to meet global demand.

Is a chocolate crisis still looming?

To follow up, there is good news and there is chocolate news.

Fortunately, in West African nations such as Ghana and Cote d鈥橧voire, where more 70% of the world鈥檚 cocoa beans are grown, farmers have had a good year. Higher than expected rainfall has improved crop yields and the cacao-growing area has expanded, partly because of rainforest clearing.

鈥淭he economic slowdown is also a factor for a slower uptake of chocolate products in countries such as India and China.

鈥淲e actually have a small oversupply of cocoa, so the crisis has been abated for now.鈥�

Phew!

鈥淏ut dark clouds are looming on the horizon.鈥�

Oh. 聽

The health and livelihoods of farmers are critical factors for continued supply.

鈥淔or many years we have been conducting training programs that have been developed from the best of our research. The keys to reducing diseases and pests are sanitation, pruning and regular harvesting. The keys to improving yields include the use of appropriate fertilisers, selecting better genotypes of cacao, improving crop and soil management, and improving technical support.

鈥淭he uptake of these practices has not permeated as much as we would expect, and the impact has been less than anticipated. Of course, we are asking 鈥榳hy?鈥�

鈥淚鈥檓 as guilty as any other scientist in becoming incredibly focused on my area of expertise. It鈥檚 not until we reach out and chat to farmers, and scientists in other disciplines, that we consider issues differently and start to truly collaborate to come up with a picture that gives us a view from all angles.

鈥淪mallholder farmers are busy. They have many competing interests, cultural and family obligations and must work on building social capital. But a big factor limiting cocoa productivity is health.鈥�

In Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, it鈥檚 estimated that 25-30% of a farmer鈥檚 labour time is lost because of ill health and disease.

Poor health is not just impacting the current farming community.

鈥淐hildhood nutrition is strongly linked to productivity and healthiness in adulthood. An estimated 90% of children in cocoa-farming villages of south Bougainville are stunted, compromising their learning, development, future health and ability to become productive cocoa farmers,鈥� David said.

鈥淎 recent Save the Children/Frontier Economics study estimated that childhood undernutrition costs the PNG economy up to $US1.5 billion a year, 8.5% of GDP, because of the consequence undernutrition will have on future labour productivity.

The average age of a cacao farmer in these countries is 56, and we are facing an increasing average age, and decline in productivity because of age.

鈥淭he current low prices for cocoa also act as a disincentive for younger farmers and investment in improved productivity and sustainability. If we understand the constraints, we might improve the effectiveness of interventions to improve cocoa productivity, making it a more rewarding livelihood to attract a new generation of smallholder farmers.鈥�

The way forward

With support from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research and the Australia-Indonesia Centre, Professor Guest and his colleagues are taking a novel, holistic approach that involves crop complementing and crop management training with programs to diversify incomes, improve market access and address community health issues.

鈥淭o ensure the medium-term and long-term survival of cocoa, we need to look at the challenges from an integrated perspective. We are working closely with colleagues in the to promote a truly 鈥榦ne-health鈥� approach to improve the health and nutrition of cocoa farming communities so that they are more productive.

鈥淲e are also working with cocoa farmers to investigate the viability of intensifying crops and opening up sections of their land for complementary crops and livestock. Introducing more women into these farming communities is also a priority. 聽

The best news this World Chocolate Day is that eating chocolate is supporting farmers, so when you chomp on a chunk of chocolate, you can say 鈥榠t鈥檚 good for the farmers鈥�, but this is a highly complex industry that has a long way to go in addressing the poverty of farmers.

鈥淚鈥檓 the first person to celebrate chocolate, and I am very keen to continue enjoying chocolate but when I hear that cocoa farmers in West Africa are earning the equivalent of $1.25 per day, it spurs me to take action in the regions I work with to identify how we can improve the situation for these farmers to get a decent cut of the profits and improve their livelihoods.

鈥淐hocolate manufacturers are coming to the realisation that beans produced in the region immediately north of Australia are of premium quality, so farmers are identifying how they can differentiate their product and sell it at an appropriate price to a number of buyers.鈥�

So the immediate crisis might be averted, but this important鈥� very important work continues.聽 聽