Projects

BCCCA projects

Collection/distribution of germplasm

Conservation of cacao germplasm in the ICG,T

Genetic diversity studies

Germplasm enhancement for Black Pod disease resistance.

Management of the Barbados Cocoa Quarantine Station

Morphological characterisation

Screening for resistance to Black Pod disease

Verification of genotypes in the ICG,T by DNA fingerprinting

CFC Projects

Cocoa Productivity and Quality Improvement: A Participatory Approach

A new 5-year CFC/ICCO/IPGRI project on Cocoa Productivity began in June, 2004. This project replaces the recently completed "Cocoa Germplasm Utilization and Conservation: A Global Approach" project that ended in March, 2004. The new CFC/ICCO/IPGRI project is cofinanced by the following sponsors: BCCCA, CIRAD, Guittard, Masterfoods, USDA, and the World Cocoa Foundation and is also a multinational effort. Details of the new project and the old are presented.

CFC/ICCO/INIAP Flavour project

A separate project titled, "Project to Establish the Physical, Chemical and Organoleptic Parameters to Differentiate Between Fine and Bulk Cocoa", also known as the CFC/ICCO/INIAP Flavour project was initiated in 2001 for which the bulk of funding comes from the Common Fund. The central objective of the project is to provide universally accepted criteria to differentiate between fine/flavour and bulk cocoas. More specifically, the project aims to characterise fine/flavour and bulk cocoas through a series of scientific evaluations of physical, chemical and organoleptic analyses and provide methodologies, standards and instruments for universal use in differentiating fine/flavour from bulk cocoa.

World Cocoa Foundation Project

A 5-year project supported by the World Cocoa Foundation (formerly ACRI) to carry out mass screening of cacao germplasm in the ICG, T for Witches' Broom disease (WB) resistance, falls within the mandate of the CFC Project to identify cocoa clones with resistance to major diseases.

---

Post-graduate Research and Internships

CRU customarily hosts UWI graduate students, who elect to study cacao for their theses or dissertations. CRU also encourages foreign exchange students who participate in internships at our research labs.