“Anything is good if it’s made
out of chocolate.”
–Jo Brand

To many over the world, it comes as a surprise that by 2020 we may run out of cocoa and by extension, chocolate. With an increase in the demand of the resource, by 1.5 billion consumers only from 2010-2015 along with a further 30 percent estimated growth by the year 2020, most growers of cocoa beans find it hard to fulfil the amounts required by countries.

Farmers employ traditional methods for the cultivation of the beans, lacking any evolvement at all. This is not only a discouraging factor because it involves more labour on their part, but the output they receive is not profitable for them in the longer run despite the annual raise in cocoa prices to 2000 euros a tonne. General disregard for the small scale farmers who put in their all for the growth of the crop is a major reason why many opt not to embark upon this line of cultivation.

Cocoa beans are predominantly cultivated in West Africa and Asia, where other social factors like the rise of the Ebola virus along with political and economic unrest also cuts short the supply in most cases. Just as other production in different sectors of the economy are being revolutionised, the agricultural sector should not be an exception which it, unfortunately, is in most developing countries due to the fact that it is the back bone of any economy that would exist. The underappreciation of individuals who work in agricultural sectors needs to change and the modernisation of the methods of cultivation and production need to be introduced in order to protect ourselves from any potential fallout in the future.