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Sarah Arnold @sejarnold.sciencemastodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 24/04/2025

As UK #fruit growers are seeing more and more #pesticide products withdrawn from approval, they are getting much more interested in biological control methods to manage pests - such as predatory insects. So the FLYTHRIVE project is all about developing a hoverfly-based system (supported by […]

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Sarah Arnold @sejarnold.sciencemastodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 24/04/2025

Excited about our new project, FLYTHRIVE, with Olombria, NRI, Asplins and Summerberry Company. Hoverflies are amazing: dual-purpose beneficial insects! They are good little #pollinators, and many species also help control aphids! The larvae of the aphid-eating #hoverflies are voracious little […]

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Sarah Arnold @sejarnold.sciencemastodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 13/03/2025

1. Agroforestry - including dynamic agroforestry. Some countries (e.g. parts of Brazil) have long traditions of shade-grown cocoa under either natural forest canopy or alongside native or economically-useful shade trees (fruit, medicines, timber, firewood, etc.).

Cocoa solutions: (Dynamic) Agroforestry
Cocoa trees alongside: - fruit trees (e.g. mango, papaya), - banana or plantain, - shading timber trees
Provides different forestry products
More complex environment = fewer pests and diseases, more resistance to drought, flooding, heatwaves
Image shows a stylised cluster of cocoa trees interspersed with other non-cocoa trees, including banana, shaded by a large tree that projects above the main canopy

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Sarah Arnold @sejarnold.sciencemastodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 13/03/2025

What about some of the solutions to making cocoa more sustainable in the face of changing climate? Fortunately, lots of cocoa-producing countries have really vibrant agri-tech sectors! So there are various innovative ways to improve cocoa production. We can revisit traditional/older methods […]

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Sarah Arnold @sejarnold.sciencemastodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 10/03/2025

6. Deforestation If cocoa farms become less productive and are not supporting the cocoa farmers' livelihoods, there is a risk that farms will expand - possibly into natural forest areas. New EU directives seek to reduce this, but implementing them can be […] [Original post on sciencemastodon.com]

Cocoa challenges: Deforestation
Many cocoa dfarms have low/declining yields - same land, less income
Sketch of cocoa farm adjacent to forest
Cocoa farm expands into forest
Sketch of the same cocoa farm and forest, but chunks taken out of the forest and converted to farm
Areas of forest gradually lost
Solution bubble: Sustainable improvement of yield from the same land area means less need to expand. Better data collection allows us to map farms' boundary changes

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Sarah Arnold @sejarnold.sciencemastodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 10/03/2025

5. Pollination It's common for fewer than 5% of flowers on a cocoa tree to be pollinated under normal conditions. We still have big gaps in our understanding of cocoa pollinators & their needs. They may be threatened by drought, overuse of pesticides, & loss of breeding habitats.

Cocoa challenges: Pollination
Image showing cocoa flower cluster
Many cocoa varieties need pollination or they will not produce pods
Option 1: Natural pollination. Midges, other insects.
Threats: Climate change, pesticide use, farm management
Images show two small insects highly magnified, a midge and a parasitoid wasp.
Option 2: Hand (manual) pollination
Image of a human carrying out hand pollination of cocoa with forceps.
Drawback: costly, difficult, time-consuming.
Pollination is a problem for all cocoa-growing regions.

Solution bubble: Better understanding of the most important/effective pollinators, creation of habitat, reduce toxins in environment

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Sarah Arnold @sejarnold.sciencemastodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 10/03/2025

Flooding is can also be an issue for cocoa agriculture, but drought seems to be considered the bigger risk for many farms in West Africa in particular. Drought-stressed cocoa may shed its leaves and/or refuse to flower - so no pods!

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Sarah Arnold @sejarnold.sciencemastodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 10/03/2025

4. Drought Among all the cocoa experts we talked to in Brazil & West Africa, climate change was mentioned often, & especially how it affects rainfall patterns. This can mean: dry seasons are longer/more intense, wet seasons come early, late or erratically, & continue for longer, or end too soon.

Cocoa challenges: Drought
Late rains can delay or prevent the cocoa trees flowering, and also there may be fewer pollinators.
A cycle shows rains arriving, cocoa flowering, pods developing, then during the dry season, harvest occurs. Annotations explain that yields will be lower in drought years, and in extreme drought, trees can drop leaves and forest fires become more likely.
The solutions bubble explains that better harnessing of nature, via agroforestry and soil protection, can help. Affordable and sustainable irrigation, and breeding drought-tolerant varieties also helps.

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Sarah Arnold @sejarnold.sciencemastodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 10/03/2025

At the moment it's mostly controlled by farm hygiene (e.g. removing old plant material like rotting pods), but many farmers want to keep pods to compost as fertiliser & they are also where pollinators breed. Some fungicides also work, but it needs commitment & consistency.

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Sarah Arnold @sejarnold.sciencemastodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 10/03/2025

3. Black pod. Black pod disease is caused by an oomycete (a bit like a fungus). In severe cases, whole crops & trees are lost. Infected pods turn black & can't be used. Risk factors include rotting plant material (e.g. old pods) harbouring spores, and high humidity on farms.

Infographic
Cocoa challenges: Black pod
Infographic showing cocoa pods that are over half dark-brown/black with disease, explaining "Caused by Phytophthera (an oomycete, a fungus-like infection". Can cause total crop loss. Old pods on farms can be a source of spores. A photo of rotting cocoa pods asks "But is there a tradeoff? Old pods are important for pollinators!"
Solutions bubble: Research – better understanding of how the disease moves on farms
Safe/biological pesticides
Managing humidity on farms – can be harder with climate change

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Sarah Arnold @sejarnold.sciencemastodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 10/03/2025

At the moment, CSSVD is mainly controlled by synthetic pesticide use to tackle the mealybugs, because the ants limit effectiveness of biocontrols like parasitoids. If CSSV is detected on a farm, the only real option is to fell the affected tree & its neighbours. This can be devastating to farmers.

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Sarah Arnold @sejarnold.sciencemastodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 10/03/2025

2. CSSVD Cacao swollen shoot virus disease: a major problem in West Africa. Transmitted by mealybugs (small insects, feeding on tree sap), which are moved around by ants. Ants protect mealybugs in exchange for drinking the honeydew they secrete. This means ants fight off predators of mealybugs!

Cocoa challenges: CSSVD
Infographic shows white fluffy mealybugs on woody plant material, with virus icons coming out and into a tree image. Icons indicate felling as the only real control option, with associated income loss to farmers. Solution bubble says: New methods to control mealybug – biological methods, trap crops?
Early detection = fewer trees need felling
Breeding virus-resistant trees

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Sarah Arnold @sejarnold.sciencemastodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 10/03/2025

1. Illegal mining (galamsey). HUGE issue in Ghana. Either a mining business turns up and offers to buy a farmer's land...or worse, just moves in nearby and starts digging. For a farmer having a bad year, the prospect of selling up for quick cash can be tempting...but what about next year?

An infographic showing the exchange of money for cocoa farmland by symbols representing gold-mining, resulting in tree loss. A collection of symbols indicates that this has bad impacts in terms of contamination of land and water. Another collection of symbols and brief text explain this trades of short-term cash for long-term income. A bubble "solutions" explains: Sustainable cocoa yields and good prices means more motivation to keep farming
Community coordination means communities can resist galamsey better than individuals.

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Sarah Arnold @sejarnold.sciencemastodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 10/03/2025

Cocoa is a highly-valued crop with growing demand, but for many of the world's cocoa farmers, getting a good crop is getting harder by the year. Let's talk about some of the challenges to environmentally sustainable cocoa production...and some of the solutions. #Cocoa #SustainableAgriculture

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Sarah Arnold @sejarnold.sciencemastodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 29/01/2025

If you're a visiting researcher in a lab, and a person comes in and offers to sell you a mango, and you buy the mango and eat the mango and it's delicious, and the next day the same person comes to the lab and offers you another mango and you buy that too...at what point do you have a mango […]

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Sarah Arnold @sejarnold.sciencemastodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 25/01/2025

@VulcanTourist @neurodiversity @actuallyautistic But overall, yes, mostly I have a big sweet tooth and can eat far more chocolate than is ideal. I do some work in commercial soft-fruit, and I definitely prefer the "oversweet" strawberry and raspberry varieties to the allegedly more […]

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Sarah Arnold @sejarnold.sciencemastodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 25/01/2025

@VulcanTourist @neurodiversity @actuallyautistic Not to excess, especially as a kid. As an adult I've got a thing for fermented foods (e.g. sauerkraut, kimchi, njera, Ghanaian banku). Currently in Ghana & sometimes people are surprised that I really enjoy banku (it's a sort of fermented maize […]

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Sarah Arnold @sejarnold.sciencemastodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 22/01/2025

Lots of discussion in Ghana at the moment about galamsey (in short, illegal gold-mining, but there is more complexity of course!). Causing destruction of cocoa farms (often without owner's consent!) and also ancient/semi-natural forest fragments. Solution is going to be complex and multilayered […]

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Sarah Arnold @sejarnold.sciencemastodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 21/01/2025

Just had a really exciting meeting with esoko team in Accra. esoko is an app w/ on-the-ground support, call centres, bulletins, etc. for farmers in various African countries, crops & farming systems to get up-to-date info (weather, market prices, pests, etc.), advice, training & support. Let's […]

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Sarah Arnold @sejarnold.sciencemastodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 04/01/2025

In any case, once a red pepper smells like that, the flavour becomes also like how I'd imagine eating an agar plate of E. coli to taste. Inedible. Gross. Means I am very wary of any pre-prepared salad with cut red pepper in. (3/3) #Salad #SensoryStuff #Flavours #Olfaction

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Sarah Arnold @sejarnold.sciencemastodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 04/01/2025

Is it that a bacterium colonises the inner surface and puts out volatiles? Is it a physiological change in the fruit tissue itself that puts out these volatiles? What are the volatiles? And why is it only red peppers? Does the process - whatever it is - require a certain level of sugar only […]

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Sarah Arnold @sejarnold.sciencemastodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 04/01/2025

Can someone tell me what's the deal with some red peppers which, once they've been open for a few days in the fridge, start to smell like an E. coli agar plate? And why am I excessively bothered by this but many other people don't notice (or don't care)? It's just red peppers. Not […]

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Sarah Arnold @sejarnold.sciencemastodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 03/01/2025

Workshops will be in English but we can provide simultaneous translation into Brazilian Portuguese if this will widen access! Please contact me if you need any other info! Acknowledging funding from FCDO via UKRI Innovate UK to make this possible!

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Sarah Arnold @sejarnold.sciencemastodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 03/01/2025

We are especially interested in hearing from: - Researchers - Cocoa farmers and farmer organisations/cooperatives - Industry professionals - Cocoa agronomists - Agritech companies who can help deliver affordable and sustainable solutions - Other tech to improve cocoa sustainability along value-chain

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Sarah Arnold @sejarnold.sciencemastodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 03/01/2025

Details: Workshop 1: 15th Jan, 14:00-16:00 UTC www.eventbrite.com/e/cocoa-sustaina… Focus on: climate-smart cocoa agriculture, big challenges, some aspects of the wider value chain, consortium-building and networking Workshop 2 […]

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Sarah Arnold @sejarnold.sciencemastodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 03/01/2025

Are you interested in research/innovation to solve challenges in sustainable cocoa in Brazil, Ghana or Nigeria? We are holding two free online workshops to prepare for future funding calls around climate-smart multilateral cocoa collaborations. 15th […] [Original post on sciencemastodon.com]

A cocoa tree trunk with about 4 large pods on it that are attractively green with dark red highlights on them. Cocoa pods are rugby-ball shaped and come straight out of the trunk.

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Sarah Arnold @sejarnold.sciencemastodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 30/12/2024

We got wonderful sunshine for the Kent Field Club #NewYearPlantHunt at Milton Creek Country Park and surrounds. Some cheery little flowers, a queen bumblebee (not photographed), a few dung flies using Apiaceae, some birds enjoying the estuary, some fun […] [Original post on sciencemastodon.com]

Yarrow - some delicate white flowers in clusters, with small floofy ferny leaves below. Background is grass and a kerbstone.

Narrow-leaved ragwort - cheerful yellow sunshine-like flowers about 1.5cm across, at the end of stems. The leaves are fairly dark green and narrow and spindly. The plant sits on a slope of mixed plants leading down to a paved area.

A pleasingly round and unblemished mushroom, probably 7cm across in real life. Colour is a creamy-beige-pale-brown. The edge is quite "crisp", with just a little bit of a turnup so you can see the hint of the gills below. Background is dead fallen leaves and green grass.

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Sarah Arnold @sejarnold.sciencemastodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 18/12/2024

Reading a paper from 1935 on pest management in orchards. On applying grease/glue bands to trees to control weevils/codling moth: "...none of the treatments proved to be as objectionable as those tried in 1934. The beta-naphthol bands in particular were unpleasant to put on since they caused a […]

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Sarah Arnold @sejarnold.sciencemastodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 12/12/2024

Quite scary seeing the figures on #cocoa production in 2023 and 2024. The start of the 2024 harvest was OK, but early signs suggest it may not stay that way. We apparently need a few good years of cocoa production to make the supply deficit, but climate change, ageing trees, #CropPests and […]

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Sarah Arnold @sejarnold.sciencemastodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 12/12/2024

Learning today at Choco-Tec that the shells of almonds, hazelnuts and other tree nuts can be ground up into a flour and added to existing nut butters/nut flours/nut milks and bakery products. Approximately doubles yield of food per tree and reduces ingredient cost. Interesting. #FoodSystems […]

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Sarah Arnold @sejarnold.sciencemastodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 11/12/2024

Learning lots at ChocoTec. Innovation in non-cocoa chocolate alternatives is quite exciting; chocolate-like substances from sunflower seeds, faba beans, etc. With current price volatility of cocoa beans (W. African crop failures in 2023 meant cocoa bean prices in 2024 peaked at about 3x normal) […]

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Sarah Arnold @sejarnold.sciencemastodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 10/12/2024

Very exciting first session at #ChocoTec2024 - fantastic examples of modernised sustainable cocoa farms, leaving opportunities for introduction of labour-saving mechanisation alongside supporting biodiversity; and discussion of rewarding cocoa growers for quality of product. #SustainableCocoa […]

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Sarah Arnold @sejarnold.sciencemastodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 10/12/2024

Nearly ready to start... At Choco-Tec. Looking forward to 3 days of learning about latest advances and perspectives in the #cocoa industry.

A crowded conference room with logos of many cocoa industry organisations on the wall.

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Sarah Arnold @sejarnold.sciencemastodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 09/12/2024

On my way to Choco-Tec conference in Cologne for a few days talking about all things cocoa! Bringing a poster about our JRF- and industry-funded work around #cocoa pollination. Pleased to be able to do the journey on trains and avoid flights. #CropPollination #Cacao #Agroforestry

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Sarah Arnold @sejarnold.sciencemastodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 03/12/2024

Do you work in any area of cocoa? We are seeking opinions on research priorities and challenges in the cocoa sector, especially production and processing. Please complete our form (5-10 min) to share your opinions/priorities […] [Original post on sciencemastodon.com]

A young cocoa pod hanging from a horizontal branch. A multi-coloured bug nymph is walking on it, facing down. The pod is green, and has a squiggly brown line of some sort of miner/borer pest across its surface. Next to the pod is a single cocoa flower, creamy white and about 1cm across.

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Sarah Arnold @sejarnold.sciencemastodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 03/12/2024

This is part of an Innovate UK UK-Brazil-Africa multilateral scoping project (iuk-business-connect.org.uk/news/cl…). We are also planning some 1-to-1 discussions and online workshops between now and February to discuss this […]

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Sarah Arnold @sejarnold.sciencemastodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 03/12/2024

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Sarah Arnold @sejarnold.sciencemastodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 22/11/2024

Reminder: Niab's Soft Fruit Technical Day coming up next week (28th November). Free online event, 09:10 to 14:15 GMT, a range of short talks on how our research can be applied to soft-fruit growing systems. Crop physiology & biology, IPPM, sustainable growing […]

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Sarah Arnold @sejarnold.sciencemastodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 10/11/2024

Some offerings for #WildflowerHour : a hemlock Conium maculatum in the middle of a field being frothy and cheerful, and a Solanum nigrum covered in little white "stars" - they seem to have come up all along the edges of some of the local arable fields this autumn.

Amongst various small green plants, a Solanum nigrum which has white, five-pointed star shaped flowers with yellow centres, a bit like tomato flowers but white. The flowers are fairly abundant for the size of plant and time of year.

A plant with lots of branches coming out its central stem (which is green but mottled with brownish-purple markings). Each branch terminates in a clustered white frothy flower made of lots of tiny tiny flowers. The leaves are further below and are quite delicate/lacey. The view is more or less from above the plant.

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Sarah Arnold @sejarnold.sciencemastodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 06/11/2024

Also nice to catch up with Kent's amazing fruit growers, agronomists, biocontrol suppliers and others. Chatted about some of the projects we have around pollination and sustainable pest management in fruit crops. #IPM #HorticulturalResearch #Farming #Apples #Pears #SoftFruit

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Sarah Arnold @sejarnold.sciencemastodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 06/11/2024

Grateful to be mostly offline this morning, attending the #NationalFruitShow, a useful trade fair for UK fruit growers, industry, producer organisations, researchers, etc. The fruit show element itself is a good chance to see the "best of" different […] [Original post on sciencemastodon.com]

A table containing clusters of extremely large pears, and rather large apples. The clusters contain 5 fruits each, of different varieties and colours from green through to red, but all are unusually large. Each cluster has a label naming the grower who produced it and total weight.

A long sloping display of boxes of apples, elegantly arranged so the fruit in each box all face the same way. The foreground has matte-yellow-brown apples of Russet varieties. Rich, shiny red apples are visible further along the display (Cox, Braeburn, etc. varieties). Some boxes have colourful rosettes indicating winners.

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Sarah Arnold @sejarnold.sciencemastodon.com.ap.brid.gy · 27/10/2024

Musk stork's bill Erodium moschatum for #WildFlowerHour, as it was still managing a few hopeful flowers before the contractors mowed them off again. It's become ubiquitous on grass verges in the village and I rather like it.

A plant growing at the kerbside in a grass verge, with slightly ferny, pinnate leaves and a pair of ~2cm across pink flowers with rather narrow, slightly tatty looking petals.

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