Irregular rains and prolonged dry seasons threaten Cameroon’s cocoa economy

Nkengué, Cameroon, Aug 10 (Reuters) – For more than six decades, the cocoa Richard Ambassa Mbassiga harvested on his plantation in central Cameroon paid for everything his family needed.

Irregular rains and prolonged dry seasons have since sucked moisture from the soil, killed cocoa trees and reduced the yield of his farm.

Now unable to fill even a single 50kg sack of beans compared to the eight he regularly produced, Mbassiga, 77, struggles to buy basic necessities with a harvest that once allowed his children to go to school.

“It all dried up,” he said. “It used to be an exemplary plantation, but I lost three hectares due to the drought. How will I live with my family?”

Changing weather patterns, partly linked to global warming, have made crop failure a new reality for many cocoa farmers.

This is a big problem for Cameroon, Africa’s third largest cocoa producer behind Ivory Coast and Ghana, as the crop generated more than 15% of its export revenue in 2019.

The country faces a battle to meet its long-term goal of increasing cocoa production to more than 300,000 tonnes a year, said Raymond Adengoyo, who is leading a national study on the impact of climate change on cocoa farming. .

“We are struggling to reach 250,000 tonnes.” said Adengoyo. “Normally, one hectare could produce a ton of cocoa if well managed, but farmers are struggling to reach even 500 kg.”.

The number of cocoa beans delivered to Cameroon’s main port of Douala during the 2019/2020 season decreased by 2.7% compared to the previous season. Data for this season has not been released.

TOMATOES FOR COCOA

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned in a 2014 report that if global carbon emissions continue to rise, entire cocoa economies could be devastated.

Cocoa trees thrive in humid equatorial areas that experience predictable spells of sunshine and heavy rain, such as West and Central Africa, where around 70% of the world’s beans, the main ingredient in chocolate, currently come from.

If carbon emissions are not reduced, scientists expect temperatures in cocoa-growing countries to rise by an average of 3.8 degrees Fahrenheit, drying up the moisture needed for tree growth and damaging production. of cocoa, according to the UN report.

Janvier Atangana, who once grew cocoa in the same region as Mbassiga, has given up on tomato, hoping it will be more resilient to climate change.

“Since the cocoa was not producing, I have to find another activity,” he explained. “I have to send my children to school, take care of my family. Life is hard.”

Adengoyo said farmers should adapt to changing weather conditions by monitoring crops closely and working more in cooperatives to cut costs.

“The individual approach to cocoa farming can no longer survive in the long term,” he predicted.

Reporting by Josiane Kouagheu and Blaise Eyong Additional reporting by Bate Felix in Dakar Editing by Cooper Inveen and Mark Potter

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