The Cacao Disease Trilogy: Black Pod, MoniIia Pod Rot, and Witches~Broom

For decades, cacao plantations in the Caribbean basin and Latin America have flourished, declined, then flourished again. These drastic production swings have been triggered by world bean prices, political turmoils, disastrous disease outbreaks, and the sociological nature of growing what was once considered a peasant crop. As the world population has increased, so has the demand for the cocoa bean. Currently, one-third of the world's supply of cocoa is produced in the Americas, and monetary support for basic and field research on breeding, epidemiologic aspects, pollination, etc., is steadily increasing. The world's chocolate manufacturers are sponsoring this research , v i a the American Cocoa Research Institute and the International Office of Cocoa and Chocolate. Cocoa organizations such as Centro Agron o m i c ~ Tropical de lnvestigacion y Ensenanza (CATIE) in Turrialba, Costa Rica, and Comissao Executiva do Plano da Lavoura Cacaueira (CEPLAC) in Itabuna, Brazil, are endowed by the manufacturers as well as by their governments.