ABSTRACT
Developments in cacao breeding programmes in Africa and the Americas Dário Ahnert, Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz, Brazil; and Albertus Bernardus Eskes, formerly CIRAD and Bioversity International, France
1 Introduction
2 Types of commercial cacao cultivars
3 Breeding objectives
4 Heterosis and heterotic groups in cacao
5 ‘Traditional’ and new cacao breeding methods
6 Cacao breeding programmes and outputs
7 Selection of cacao for organoleptic quality
8 Future trends and conclusion
9 References
Cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) breeding is a long-term process that requires large quantities of good-quality germplasm, large experimental areas, testing of a large quantity of progenies and clones, appropriate schemes of selection and a team of experienced breeders focused on clear breeding objectives that meet the needs of farmers and the industry. In this chapter we will describe the main developments in the cacao breeding programmes in Trinidad, Brazil, Ecuador and Costa Rica in the Americas, and in Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Cameroon in Africa. These programmes began between the 1930s and 1950s by applying mass selection to local populations and by establishing the first germplasm collections.
