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Cocoa is an ancient species that has been present in the northeastern Amazon of Peru and southern Ecuador for thousands of years and is kept protected by indigenous peoples. On the Peruvian side, these trees Theobroma cacao they have been custodied by indigenous peoples such as Wampís and Awajun.
“The center of origin of cocoa is in the northeastern area of Peruwhich includes the departments of Amazonas and San Martín and involves the southern area of Ecuadorwhere a cocoa plant like the one we know now first appeared, many millions of years ago,” says Danilo Bustamante, a researcher at the Toribio Rodríguez de Mendoza National University, located in the Peruvian department of Amazonas.
Bustamante explains that The largest number of genetic lines of native cocoa are found in the Amazon region., which “we know as fine aroma cocoas”. For this reason, Bustamante and a group of researchers have been studying the genomics of cocoa in this region and the rest of Peru for several years.
A recent study carried out by this team of researchers – published in the journal Plos One– confirmed that there are four new genetic groups of native cocoawhich are added to the 10 that already existed in Peru. Of these 14 genetic lines, at least 13 grow in the Amazon region.
The research led by Bustamante and Martha Calderón, also a researcher at the Toribio Rodríguez National University of Mendoza, and Lambert Motilal, at the University of the West Indies, in Trinidad and Tobago, it took eight years of work. “It started in 2018 when the group of researchers went to collect quite old material, which is protected by indigenous communities and farmers,” says Bustamante about the field work.
The collection of the different varieties of native cocoa was carried out in eight departments of Peru: Amazonas, Piura, Cajamarca, San Martín, Ucayali, Madre de Dios, Cusco and Ayacucho. 390 samples of cocoa plants were collected during two expeditionsthe authors explained in the publication The genetic structure of native cocoa reveals four new genetic lineages in indigenous Amazonian sites in Peru.
The team made up of researchers and undergraduate and graduate students traveled to different areas of each of these departments to collect samples of native trees. “We went out to collect samples in super remote places, here, in the Amazonas region, while other researchers helped us collect samples in Cusco, Ayacucho, San Martín, Piura. It has been an ant job. The samples arrived from all the teams and we began to extract the DNA,” says Bustamante.
“They are plants that are more than 50 years old, some are up to 100 years old, but they had not been analyzed,” adds the scientist. In the study they also explain that the trees were selected “based on the traditional knowledge of farmers.”
After the collection, molecular biology and genomic studies were carried out in the laboratory installed at the University of Toribio Rodríguez de Mendoza. Besides, The DNA samples were sent outside of Peru so that they can be sequenced. “It is cheaper to sequence these types of materials abroad and then we receive that data to work at a bioinformatics level.”
“There is a lot of support from the University of the West Indies because they allow us to have access to databases and be able to compare our material with the material that exists worldwide. These types of international collaborations have strengthened our capabilities in molecular analysisin traditional knowledge, in computer knowledge of crops that has allowed us to obtain these results,” adds Bustamante.
The team co-leader explains that The new genetic lineages have received the names of Awajún“in honor of the communities of the Awajún people present in the Amazonas region”; and Porcelainafter the local name for Piura cocoa, a genetic variety that is mainly distributed in that region. While in the south, the lineages found in Cusco and Ayacucho bear the names of Chuncho 1 and Chunchowhich correspond to the local name of the cocoa found in these places.
The study also explains that the cocoa trees from the eight departments where the samples were collected presented a genetically variable mix. In some cases, mixed samples were found that combined already known plant populations along with new Peruvian populations.. “The results of this study suggest that, although the cocoa germplasm is genetically related between the different departments, each region has its own and distinctive genetic composition,” the publication states.
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“I am the third generation of cocoa producers. My grandparents already grew cocoa, they were migrants from Chota, Cajamarca. When they arrived here, in this area, in the 60s, they found some small cocoa plantations,” says Mario Zuloeta, a cocoa producer in Copallin, a district of Bagua, in Amazonas.
Zuloeta grows the native cocoa “that has always existed in the area.” “Our ancestors already cultivated it”states in reference to the findings of the Montegrande archaeological site, located in the province of Jaén, in Cajamarca, an area that is currently a cocoa producer.
Studies carried out by archaeologist Quirino Olivera have revealed that cocoa would have been domesticated at least 5,000 years ago in the Amazon. An investigation published in Scientific Report, which has Olivera among its authors, reports on the findings of remains of Theobroma within ceramics and the domestication of this species thousands of years ago.
“Cacao is ancient and, if good management is done, the plant will not die. Sometimes technicians say that the plant is old and does not produce, but they are wrong. A plant, even if it is 80 or 100 years old, continues to produce. Here there is a record of trees that are more than 120 years old that, if I prune them, take care of them, they will continue producing,” says Zuloeta.
The study highlights that cocoa crops are a source of income for millions of small farmers in tropical areas. It is also mentioned that Peru ranks eighth among the largest cocoa producers and tenth among the largest exporters. of cocoa beans in the world, in addition to being the second largest producer of organic cocoa in the world. The country is recognized worldwide for its fine-tasting and top-quality cocoa.
“Cocoa, for the Amazonas region, is the second most important agricultural product, after coffee. It is important because of its economic value and what it represents for the regional GDP, but also because it involves producers and native communities,” says Segundo Chávez, professor and researcher at the Toribio Rodríguez National University of Mendoza and who did not participate in the study.