Introducing modern technologies to increase the economic efficiency of cocoa production in Africa

Global cocoa production has undergone significant changes over the past 60 years. The global volume of cultivation of this crop has grown significantly. The leading manufacturing countries in the industry have also switched their positions over the time. African countries, such as Ghana, Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Cameroon have significantly improved their results. At the same time, Ivory Coast steadily occupies the first place in this top for more than 40 years. To analyze the performance, two African states were selected – the first (Ivory Coast) and last (Cameroon) of the top ten. As a result, it was found that farmers in both countries have similar problems, regardless of the amount of cocoa produced. Almost all difficulties are associated with problems of maintaining tall cocoa trees due to difficult access, which significantly reduces the already unsatisfactory productivity of the sector. Another important problem in the selected African countries is the jobless youth employment; as young people don’t want put their life to work in backward agriculture. Despite the nominal increase of production volumes, the cocoa industry is undergoing a crisis, as its development follows an extensive path. Since cocoa is an indispensable product used in many fields, intensification plays a crucial role in the industry development. Therefore manufacturers have begun to use modern digital developments including hardware and software solutions more often. One of the decisions is to implement unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the cocoa industry to collect and process information (quality assessment of cocoa trees, terrain mapping, etc.), as well as to take care of cocoa trees (for example, for the precise application of chemical protection against pests and diseases). The article demonstrates the use of UAVs on the example of the cocoa sectors of Ivory Coast and Cameroon. Today, the latest technologies are still in the development and testing phase, so their large-scale application has not been implemented yet. However it is clear that innovations developed for the cocoa industry will not only increase production efficiency but also may attract young professionals to the sector. It is expected that these developments can be subsequently applied on a wider scale and will be used not only in the cocoa industry but in many other fields.