Assessment of sustainability in cocoa farms in Ecuador: application of a multidimensional indicator-based framework

ABSTRACT

Cocoa is one of Ecuador’s main export products. Over the last decades, cocoa production in the country has increased considerably, making it the largest producer of cocoa in Latin America. However, this increase has been accompanied by environmental degradation, endangering the sustainability of cocoa cultivation. This study utilizes an innovative indicator-based framework to evaluate the sustainability performance of fine flavour and CCN-51 cocoa farms in Ecuador, across economic, social, environmental, nutrition and health, and governance dimensions. Data were collected from 169 farms in Manabí Province and multiple statistical tests were employed to discern sustainability scores. The results highlighted significant differences in sustainability between the two cocoa production systems, influenced by factors such as ethnicity, age, and level of education. A 53% variation in sustainability scores between the fine flavour and CCN-51 cocoa farms was identified. The association of lower sustainability scores with limitations of physical and financial capital provides insights for enhancing sustainable cocoa farming in Ecuador.

KEYWORDS:

• Sustainability
• Indicators
• Statistical analysis
• Farms
• Cocoa
• Ecuador

Acknowledgments

The authors thank: the Ministry of Agriculture of Ecuador and the FAO Country Office in Ecuador for their guidance in the specification of the case study; the trained enumerators, who diligently conducted surveys in Manabí; and all the farmers who responded to the surveys.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data used in this research are available upon reasonable request from the corresponding author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), under the project FARMTOOLS: ‘Design of farm business optimization tools in the context of economic and environmental crises’ [project number 351488].