SOIL MANAGEMENT

Soil health is essential but incredibly complex.

Soils biological (nutrient composition, soil organic matter, microbial activity, biodiversity) and physical (pH, erosion control, ion exchange capacity) components are disciplines by themselves. Healthy soils are the foundation of sustainable cocoa farms providing longevity and resilience over time.

Most soils on cocoa farms are heavily depleted

Decades of cocoa farming on previous rainforest areas without proper soil management has led to widespread soil degradation on cocoa plantations.

Restoration is harder than prevention

It is much more difficult to restore soil health than maintaining it. Therefore, an urgent shift in soil management is needed to avoid repeating cycles of degradation.

The way forward is multi-faceted. Cocoa Horizons uses a combination of an agroforestry model and diverse fertilization methods, which is ideal to maintain and increase soil organic matter, nutrient levels and increase below- and aboveground biodiversity in cocoa farming systems.

As part of the Cocoa Horizons process, we do soil PH measurements on the ground in five countries: Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria and Indonesia. In Brazil our teams are conducting soil and leaf analysis, while in Ecuador soil analysis.