Cultivating cacao: Implications of sun-grown cacao on local food security and environmental sustainability

The reasons why upland farmers on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi are engaged in a cacao boom and its long term implications are addressed in the context of protected area management regulations, and political and economic conditions in Post-Suharto, Indonesia. In the remote case study village of Moa in Central Sulawesi, we found that while few households cultivated cacao in the early 1990s, all had planted cacao by 2000. Furthermore, the vast majority cultivate cacao in former food-crop focused swidden fields under full-sun conditions. Farmers cultivate cacao to establish property rights in light of a land shortage driven in part by the prohibition of farming and forest product collecting in a nearby national park, and to secure a future source of income, a concern that has been exacerbated by Indonesia’s economic crisis. However, conversion of swidden fields to sun-grown cacao constrains future food production opportunities, increases susceptibility to drought stress and potential soil nutrient and organic matter losses, and increases household dependence on a commodity that is subject to extreme price volatility. These factors raise significant concerns for local food security and agricultural sustainability.