Agroforestry and land reform give Brazil cacao farmers sweet taste of success
In the 1990s, witches’ broom disease, a fungal outbreak, devastated cacao crops in the south of Brazil’s Bahia state, leaving many farms abandoned.
One of those farms was occupied by 40 families who now sell top-quality cacao to major chocolate brands.
The community reestablished the agroecological system known as cabruca, in which farmers plant cacao trees and other crops without clearing native forest.
Thanks to this system and their land reform efforts, the farmers have seen their monthly earnings more than double since 2008.
“We consider the witches’ broom not a plague, but rather a ‘holy’ broom,” says Rubens de Jesus. “Thanks to it, we are on the land today.”