Perspective Chapter: Microclimate, Plant Stress and Extension of Cacao Frontiers to Marginal Agroecologies of the Rainforest Tropics

Abstract

Cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) is an important cash crop of the rainforest tropics where it is a major foreign exchange earner, industrial raw material, livelihood, and offer ecosystem services. The rainforest of the tropics is noted for high productivity potential for cacao, however, and its development prospects is beset with numerous challenges among which is the threat of climate change which is setting new ecological boundaries. The new regimes of climate are expected to affect the area suitable for agriculture, thus, crop species are bound to grow in areas where they were not previously grown and areas that were hitherto not suitable for their production. Nevertheless, the shifting environment conditions and associated marginal growing environment conditions (weather: (increasing warming and drought) and soil) may offer opportunities for extending crop frontiers beyond its current ecological boundaries. It is therefore necessary to develop strategies for alleviating constraints imposed by changing environmental conditions thus setting the agenda for climate smart adaptable and sustainable production systems. In addition, efforts to unlock the potentials of the new environmental boundaries for crops will benefit from knowledge, technologies and innovations and climate mitigation.