This book is the second in the series from CABI Commodities, following Coffee Futures (2001). Edited by CABI researchers, it provides an excellent and well-illustrated anthology written by fellow scientists and stakeholders from private sector, NGO and national associations in the cocoa supply chain. It draws heavily on the field research and extension experience of CABI and its research partners in Asia, Africa and Latin America, with detailed case material from projects in Ghana, Cameroon, Indonesia, Costa Rica and Brazil. Chapters cover production and consumption trends, germplasm and breeding, including new genetic techniques, cocoa cropping systems, labour and land issues, diversification and the search for sustainability. The chapter on the negative impacts of privatisation of West African cocoa chains is complemented by a more positive chapter on the growth of fair trade cocoa as an alternative for smallholder farmers, who make up the bulk of cocoa growers worldwide.

Cocoa pests and diseases are described in accessible language and their current methods of chemical, biological and cultural control. Future tactics for pest management stress the role of improved crop husbandry but its limitations when farmgate prices fail to cover labour and input costs. There is considerable discussion of rational pesticide use, acknowledging issues of residues and farmworker hazard, but also developments in biological control and the potential of inducers of plant resistance, including endophytes (microorganisms living within cocoa plant tissues). This section identifies a short term strategy, based mainly on better application of chemical control, increasing use of biopesticide and other biologically-based methods over the medium term, while improvements in breeding for resistance and classical biological control of non-native pests and diseases are unlikely to bring benefits for at least ten years. Cocoa Futures concludes with updates on current initiatives in farmer participatory research and training and towards sustainable production.