According to the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO), the concept of 'sustainability' encompasses social, economic and environmental dimensions in both production and consumption. Although there has been a considerable research focus and investment on the technical issues of productivity over the years, less attention has been given to the farmers economic, social context, culture and policy, and it has often been assumed they have sufficient resources and incentives to implement technical advances. Unfortunately, however, a consequence of this has been that often research outcomes and recommendations are not easily adopted by farmers, partly because they lack financial incentives to invest in new technologies, or the technologies are too expensive or culturally different from what the farmer is used to doing and hence not easily acceptable and adoptable for farmers.
There is thus an urgent need to address the social, cultural and economic issues which have contributed to:
Drying cocoa beans in the sun