Quick facts to set the scene

The quick botany

Cocoa tree, Anreapi

Cocoa grows in pods on cacao trees (yep, the name came from a misspelling). Cacao theobroma to be exact. From cocoa we make chocolate. Cacao is originally from South America but has been introduced to many other tropical places. Originally a forest tree, it likes to grow in about 50% shade which is usually provided by other food trees.

The cocoa disease: VSD

The disease is the yellowed leaf. The infection spreads
towards the tip and the leaves fall - dieback.

It’s called Vascular Streak Dieback (VSD), caused by a fungus Ceratosbasidium theobromae.

It’s one of 3 main pests or diseases of cocoa in South East Asia, and is only found there. The spores of the fungus were carried by wind out of the forests onto the cocoa trees. It causes the tree branches to die off towards the tips from that infected leaf you can see in the middle. No-one know what the fungus lived on in the forests. 

The fussy VSD spores - the little things with horns

Over the past 10 years, the disease symptoms have changed, right across South East Asia. This is really mysterious, because VSD is essentially a pathetic disease—it wants just the right conditons to produce spores and when it does, they don’t spread further than 80 metres and even then they have to fall on young leaves. It’s not possible that the changed symptoms could have spread from one place right across South East Asia—something else is going on. Mysterious. Interesting.

The study

Honours, Botany, La Trobe University, Melbourne. Supervisor Dr Philip Keane, Grand Poobah of VSD. Thesis deadline 20 October 2014. Counting down.

I'm participating with people from Hasanuddin University Makassar and ACIAR (Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research), and many others in local organisations. Meeting many  warm and generous people. And of course, there's also my multi-skilled companion, Steve: interpreter, IT Helpdesk, tour organiser, and general brains trust.

The team about to head off from Makassar

 

The place: Sulawesi, Indonesia

Sulawesi is in East Indonesia, straddling the Equator. We are based loosely in Makassar, the capital city, but take regular road trips around South Sulawesi and to West Sulawesi. We head for the Mars (chocolates) Research Centre in Tarengge (near Tomony, near Wotu, in Luwu region, 12 hours by road from Makkers), then go to Toruang in Pinrang region, then to Polewali in Polman region (about 6 hour trip back to Mak). See the map.

Typical highway

Unlike Australia where 75% of the populations lives in cities, in Sula 75% live in the countryside in small village clusters. There are no bypass roads, so the travelling on the highway can be slow because there are lots and lots of towns.

Makassar Sunday market

Small group aerobics on the foreshore, Makassar.
Anyone can join in.

Most of the people in South Sulawesi are Muslim, but they are pretty relaxed about it—even though many wear the scarf, women work in shops, markets, and offices, attend university, drive cars. They shake their booty down on the foreshore at group aerobics. Wearing high heels under the long skirt, figure-hugging clothing and full face makeup is not unusual. The other noticeable Muslim thing is the calls to prayer over mosque loudspeakers several times each day. Less noticeable is that Muslim people don’t drink alcohol, but it makes the streets feel safe and friendly, and it’s refreshing to see young people enjoy themselves without it.

So much food there's not enough table

Oh, the food. Good. Fresh. We eat lots of fresh bbq’d fish. But the bread—white, sweet. Saw a darkish loaf in a 7-eleven yesterday and for a moment thought I’d found dark rye bread. No. It’s got chocolate in it.

 

Crash course in cocoa economics

The world’s biggest cocoa producers are Ivory Coast and Ghana in West Africa. Third in line is Indonesia and 95% of this comes from Sulawesi. Apparently, the global supply of cocoa is falling due to declining soil fertility and pests and diseases. This is serious news for all of us chocaholics.

Cocoa grows only in the tropics. Nearly all the manufacturing to make chocolate is done in wealthy, cooler places like the USA and Europe. The farmers might get 20 cents for the cocoa in each A$4.00 (200 g) block of chocolate, which somehow that doesn’t seem fair. But you know those labels you see on chocolate – Fair Trade, Rainforest Alliance? They really do make a difference to what the farmers are paid. It’s still not a huge amount more (probably not even 40 cents), but it encourages young people to stay on the farms and means that older farmers can pay a little for extra labour help if they need to. Many of the younger farmers we’ve met are right into developing organic farming techniques, and spreading the news.

Village in distance, mixed farming. I think the white bobbles are bits of plastic to keep birds away.

Another village—growing household vegies in 'pots'

There are said to be about 500,000 small cocoa farms in Sulawesi. Some say this is an underestimate. Sulawesi’s main industries: fishing, rice farming, coffee, cocoa. That said, the cocoa and coffee are grown alongside other food trees (rambutan, durian, banana, pawpaw, coconut, sugar palm), herbs and vegies around the farmer’s houses. The farmers might also sell excess coconuts (copra), rice, chickens, goats, fruit at the town markets.

We probably won't get around to all the farms ...

next post - the science gets real