2 Cocoa Plants Purpose • Students know the history of the cocoa plant. • Students can name botanical characteristics of cocoa plants. • Students can name factors which are important for the growth of cocoa plants and describe diseases and pests of the plant. Overview • Basic historical, botanical and ecological knowledge about the cocoa plant. Time • 90-135 minutes Material • Printed pictures of the history of the cocoa plant • Cocoa pod • Cocoa tree (or pictures of a cocoa tree) • Handouts for each student Teachers Support Procedure: O) Preparation Order (Homework Task) • Give the students this worksheet a week in advance as a preparatory homework assignment. Students interview someone they know and that has cocoa farm about growth factors and diseases of cocoa trees. The results are used in C) Ecology and cocoa cultivation. ( Through the interview, the students establish a connection between the topic of the teaching unit and the world in which they live. In addition, the interview provides the opportunity to acquire specialist knowledge.) A) History of cocoa tree • Show a cocoa pod (or a picture of a cocoa tree) and ask the students where the cocoa plant has its origin (e.g. individual students answer / individual students show their guess on a map / the teacher names continents and the students raise their hand at their guess). • Form groups and distribute pictures of the history of the cocoa tree to groups. • Draw a timeline on the blackboard (4000 BC – today). Each group briefly discusses what their picture might represent, what it might have to do with the history of the cocoa tree and what time it alludes to. • One person per group presents the picture and result of discussion and arranges the picture on the timeline on the blackboard. • Correct the sequence of the pictures on the blackboard, explain what the pictures show and note the most important information on the blackboard. The students write down the noted information. 1 B) Botanical characteristics • Ideally, go out with the class to a cocoa tree near the school grounds and inspect it closely. If this is not possible, pictures of a cocoa tree can be shown in the classroom. • With the help of the cocoa tree or the image, students draw a sketch of a cocoa tree and label its parts. • The botanical characteristics of the cocoa tree should be written down (if possible, these can be worked out independently on the basis of an examination of a tree and/or an Internet research and then corrected together. If this is not possible, the characteristics can be worked out together in class). C) Ecology and cocoa cultivation • Task 1: Collect and discuss the student results of the preparatory homework. Make additions if necessary. • Each of the subsequent tasks (2-5) should first be solved individually or in groups of two. Then the results should be corrected in class. The purpose of the tasks is briefly described below: Task 2: By reading a text the students elaborate and summarize the growth conditions of cocoa trees. Task 3: With the help of the world map and the indication of the largest cocoa-growing countries, the students work out the location and climate zone of the regions that cultivate cocoa. Task 4: On the basis of climate data from individual regions and the results of Task 2, the students assess where cocoa can be grown and where not. Task 5: The students learn that cocoa can be grown in different cultivation systems. This information is important because these two cultivation systems appear again and again in the course of the teaching unit. The results of the task should be discussed in class. Note: The purpose of this task is to collect some first ideas of the students, so the answers do not have to be correct. Wrap-up Give the students the following task: “Imagine you are coming home, and your mother or father asks you what new things you have learned today. What will you tell them?” Let the students first think individually and take notes. Then let them exchange with the person sitting next to them. At the end, some students present their results to the class. 2 Technical hints: A) History of cocoa tree Pictures and descriptions Further information 3300 BC: First traces of the cocoa tree in Santa 3300 BC: Origin Ana (La Florida), Ecuador, South America. Where exactly the origin of the cocoa tree lies has not yet been completely clarified. Traces of clay vessels found in Santa Ana (La Florida) in the upper part of the Amazon basin in the southeast of Ecuador show that the cocoa tree has been cultivated there since at least 3300 BC. It probably originated there and later spread over Central America. (Source: https://www.theobroma-cacao.de) 1500 BC: Cultivation of cocoa trees in Central 1500 BC: Olmecs America by Olmecs. The word "cacao," The Olmecs were the first known high culture in originally pronounced "kakawa," comes from present-day Mexico (1500 to 400 BC). This the Olmec language. culture is especially known for its colossal stone heads, which probably represent rulers. Around 1500 BC. the Olmec started to cultivate cocoa trees in Central America. (Source: https://www.theobroma-cacao.de, OroVerde) Source: https://www.slideshare.net/olmecdragons/the- olmec-culture 300-900 AC: Mayans develop an irrigation 300-900 AC: Mayas system to produce the highest possible cocoa The Mayans settled in southern Mexico a few yields. Use of cocoa as a kind of holy water, as a centuries after the fall of the Olmecs. They medicinal plant, as a sacrifice, and as a means cultivated the cocoa tree on large fields and of payment. developed irrigation systems to achieve the highest possible yields. Through the trade routes, cocoa beans could be transported from the few suitable cultivation areas to the entire Mayan empire. The Mayas produced a cocoa drink from the cocoa beans. This was used as a kind of holy Picture: Mayan mural water to celebrate the transition of the (Source: National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City) adolescent into adulthood. Cocoa was used as a sacrifice for the gods and as a medical plant: it was a universal medicine for diarrhoea, measles and birth pains. Furthermore, the cocoa bean was used as a means of payment. (Source: https://www.theobroma-cacao.de, OroVerde) 3 1300-1500: The Aztecs used cocoa like the 1300-1500: Aztecs Mayans did. They also adopted the sacred drink At the beginning of the 13th century the high from the Mayans and called it "Xocolatl" (xoco = culture of the Aztecs began. To the Aztecs bitter; atl = water). cocoa was a sacred tree, the seeds of which had been brought from paradise by the prophet Quetzalcoatl. They adopted the tradition of the sacred drink from the Mayans, and called it "Xocolatl" (xoco = bitter; atl = water). The Picture: Aztecs preparing the special spicy cocoa Aztecs used cocoa and cocoa butter as a drink (Source: medicine, as a gift, as a sacrifice and as a means https://onthecocoatrail.com/2012/11/30/the-first-cocoa- of payment. For example, a turkey cost 200 recipes/) cocoa beans and an avocado between one and three cocoa beans. (Source: https://www.theobroma-cacao) 1600: Cocoa beans and the drink “Xocolatl” 1600: Expansion arrived in Europe. The first European to get to know cocoa was Christopher Columbus in 1502. In the 16th century the cocoa beans and the necessary equipment for the preparation of the "Xocolatl" arrived in Europe. In the beginning, chocolate was a luxury good for the rich. But the demand of the Europeans for the chocolate drink increased enormously, therefore the cultivation areas were also expanded. Large cocoa plantations were established in Central Picture: Chocolate drink for the aristocrats America, South America and the West Indies. (Source: www.wikipedia.com) (Source: https://www.theobroma-cacao.de) 1753: Carl von Linné gives the scientific name 1753: Scientific Name Theobroma cacao. Theobroma means 'food of The scientific name Theobroma cacao was given the gods' in Latin. Cocoa originates from the to the species by the botanist Carl von Linné in Aztec term cacahuatl (cacao beans). 1753, when he published it in his famous book Species Plantarum. Theobroma means 'food of the gods' in Latin. The word cocoa originates from the Aztec term cacahuatl (cacao beans). (Source: https://www.theobroma-cacao.de) About Carl von Linné: He was a Swedish naturalist who laid the foundations of modern botanical and zoological taxonomy with his binary nomenclature (=two-term naming system). Picture: Carl von Linné, 1707 – 1778 1878: Cocoa plants were End of 1800: Arrival in West Africa brought to continental Towards the end of the 19th century the first Africa (Ghana) cocoa plants arrived on continental Africa. In 1879 a local planter brought back a pod from the island of Bioko and sowed the first beans in Ghana. He thus grew a few trees, the origin of the entire African stock, which has been characterized ever since by its considerable 4 homogeneity. By 1911 Ghana had become the world's most important producer of raw cocoa. Cocoa was introduced into Nigeria from Ghana around 1890. The first plantations in Côte d'lvoire, established in the eastern regions in 1905, were not a success and it was only from 1912 onwards, following a government extension programme, that this new crop was grown on a wider scale. Towards the end of the 19th century, the Germans introduced cocoa into Cameroon. Today: Main cocoa producing countries are: Today: Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Indonesia, Ecuador, Main Cocoa-Producing Countries 2017/18 Cameroon. Picture: Main cocoa-producing countries in the world.