Why cocoa farmers are GPS mapping where their beans are grown
ADZOPÉ, Ivory Coast—In the central clearing of a steep-sloped cocoa plantation, surrounded by trees dripping with fat green pods, Brice-Armel Konan raised his smartphone toward the sky and saved the coordinates of his location in an app. It’s a scene being repeated across the West African nation of Ivory Coast, the world’s largest cocoa producer, as it embarks on a gargantuan experiment meant to make chocolate more sustainable. That’s where people like Konan, who helps monitor cocoa farm data in Ivory Coast for the Rainforest Alliance, a nonprofit based in New York and Amsterdam, and his smartphone come in. Ivory Coast’s cocoa and coffee regulator says it has mapped just over 80% of the country’s estimated 1.55 million cocoa farms. Mapping risk Cocoa currently accounts for 10% of Ivory Coast’s GDP and 25% of jobs, said Finance Minister Adama Coulibaly.
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