World's top cocoa producer Ivory Coast aims for a climate-tough bean

Kofi Alexis Amani has watched the trees on his cocoa plantation wilt and sometimes wither as rains became unpredictable and less abundant in Ivory Coast over the past several decades. “You can lose everything,” he sighed. The west African country is the world’s top cocoa producer, responsible for nearly 40 per cent of global output. Its economy also depends on the crop, which accounts for 15pc of GDP, supporting roughly five million people in a country of more than 33m. An Ivorian researcher measures cocoa pods on trees in a cocoa seed field belonging to the National Centre for Agronomic…