True-to-Type DNA Fingerprinting of West and Central African Cocoa Germplasm: Implications Towards Cocoa and Chocolate Economy and Sustainability

More than 73% of cacao is produced by smallholder farmers with holdings of less than 5 hectares in West and Central Africa. Cocoa breeding programs are usually based on the creation of full-sib progenies (usually called “hybrids”), derived from parents selected for their good combining for useful traits such as yield and tolerance to diseases. However, there is a serious issue of mislabeling of parents which can be attributed to human error or presence of synonymy or homonymy. Over the past three years, the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) through the African Cocoa Initiative (ACI) has provided support for genetic fingerprinting of the most important clones in the Breeders’ collections and seed garden materials in West and Central Africa including Nigeria, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon and Togo. The results from the study has shown that only 5% of the clones and seed garden materials have been studied within the project, and there is an urgent need for the study to be extended to the entire breeding collection in each of the countries. This is in view of the serious implications of potential admixtures in the collection. This concern needs to be addressed urgently so that the breeders’ collection in each of the countries can be cleaned up and a regional set of true-to-type clones are identified, maintained, conserved and used in breeding programs for cocoa improvement and sustainability. Additionally, the study identified that the genetic base of seed gardens is narrow indicating the presence of only a few clones or admixtures and low use of improved clones from the national programs. This may have a serious consequence in the light of existing and emerging biotic and abiotic stresses, and its impact on cocoa sustainability. The ACI project has provided a roadmap for confirming the identity of true-to-type cocoa clones in West and Central Africa. This now needs to be taken forward so that all the breeders’ collection is cleaned up.