Agronomic strategies for sustainable recovery of the cacao chain in the Southwest Amazon

• Grant number: 22/10358-9
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: February 01, 2023
• End date: January 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy - Crop Science
• Agreement: CONFAP - National Council of State Research Support Foundations
• Principal Investigator: Renato de Mello Prado
• Grantee: Renato de Mello Prado
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias (FCAV). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Jaboticabal. Jaboticabal , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Douglas Marcelo Pinheiro da Silva ; Priscila Lupino Gratão ; Sylviane Beck Ribeiro
• Associated scholarship(s): 24/00775-7 - Agronomic strategies for sustainable recovery of the cocoa chain in the southwestern Amazon, BP.PD

Abstract

Cocoa is one of the main products of the Amazonian bioeconomy, domesticated more than 3 thousand years ago by pre-Columbian peoples, being used as food and medicine. Consumption of cocoa products with a high content of flavonols and procyanidins decreases the tendency of platelets to aggregate and, therefore, to form clots. Phenolic compounds are products of secondary metabolism in plants, synthesized from two main primary pathways: the shikimate pathway and the acetate pathway. However, in its region of origin, cocoa cultivation is in a technologically outdated situation, losing economic importance to other agricultural crops that act as strong vectors of local deforestation, such as beef cattle and grain cultivation. In this context, the objective of this proposal will be to evaluate the current conditions of cultivation in order to identify bottlenecks and technologies available to enable the recovery and strengthening of the cocoa production chain, improving its competitiveness against other producing regions, also facing the vectors of deforestation. For this, the present proposal intends to evaluate the nutritional and pharmacological value of the selected cocoa in the region, to compare its agronomic potential with hybrids and clones used in other regions of the country, and to evaluate the technical feasibility, nutritional status and limiting edaphic factors of the crops in Rondônia, comparing them with crops from Pará. At the end, it will be possible to indicate public policies and accessible technologies for the recovery of cocoa cultivation in its center of origin. (AU)