pxl

Long live the ERB! Sign up for our free weekly newsletter.

Re-generation

Maroussia Mbaye

published in

Photos of young cocoa farmers in Côte d’Ivoire, who prove that after decades of depletion, soil recovery is possible.

Ferme de Mr. N’Koh, Azagué, Côte d’Ivoire, 2023 — Samson applies biopesticides created on-site to cocoa trees at Mr. N’Koh’s farm. These natural treatments, developed from plant-based formulas and refined over years, of observation help restore soil fertility while maintaining ecological balance. They have been developed from plant-based formulas refined over years of observation.

Côte d’Ivoire gained independence from France in 1960 and has become, in the decades since, the world’s biggest cocoa producer. It produces almost half of the world’s supply. (The vast majority of cocoa beans are exported and then processed elsewhere; for most Ivorians, chocolate is an unaffordable luxury.)

Cocoa production, in the documentary photographer Maroussia Mbaye’s impression, spread like a storm: it raged across the land, exhausted the soil, eroded an entire generation’s futures. Today, cocoa production is imperiled by, well, the recent history of cocoa production. Decades of cocoa-driven spectacular deforestation have left the land fragile, forcing farmers to seek alternatives. Facing falling cocoa prices and the depletion of the soil, farmers turn to crops like peanuts or rubber.