Mariela E. Leandro-Muñoz

• PhD
• Researcher at Centro Agronomico Tropical de Investigacion y Ensenanza Catie

Este Policy Brief aborda la urgente necesidad de fortalecer la diversidad genética del cacao en República Dominicana mediante la introducción, selección y evaluación de clones tolerantes a la moniliasis. Se enfatiza la importancia de fuentes seguras de germoplasma, coordinación con autoridades fitosanitarias, uso de materiales de embalaje seguros y...

Cocoa attainable yields are affected by a complex of pests and diseases in a particular agro-environment. Estimation of yield loss is critical for agronomic and economic decision-making at the farm level. For over 15 months, we monitored 1100 pods from six cocoa clones (PMCT-58, CC-137, CATIE-R1 CATIE-R4, ICS-95, and CCN-51) to assess the incidence...

Background Plants have complex and dynamic immune systems that have evolved to resist pathogens. Humans have worked to enhance these defenses in crops through breeding. However, many crops harbor only a fraction of the genetic diversity present in wild relatives. Increased utilization of diverse germplasm to search for desirable traits, such as dis...

A bstract Cocoa farmers must decide on whether to rehabilitate (Rh) or to renovate (Re) a cocoa orchard when its productivity declines due to ageing, disease outbreaks or other causes. Deciding on Rh/Re is often a complex, expensive and conflictive process. In this review, we (1) explore the diversity of contexts, driving forces, stakeholders and r...

Cocoa cultivation is labeled as a driver of both deforestation and reforestation, yet the extent of the phenomena varies at farm and landscape level and as a response to national and local contexts. In this study, we documented the main pathways and contexts behind cocoa cultivation in two sites with different histories of cocoa cultivation. We com...

The tropical tree Theobroma cacao is the source of chocolate, and its seeds are a major export from many producing countries in Central and South America, Africa, and Asia. Every year, 30–40% of pre-harvest yield is lost due to disease damage. Host plant resistance is the most efficient and environmentally friendly approach for disease management....

Moniliophthora Pod Rot (MPR) caused by the fungus Moniliophthora roreri (Cif.) Evans et al., is one of the main limiting factors of cocoa production in Latin America. Currently insufficient information on the biology and epidemiology of the pathogen limits the development of efficient management options to control MPR. This research aims to elucida...

Daily rainfall distribution throughout the experimental period. (TIF)

Absolute values of Pearson’s correlation coefficients (r) within selected microclimatic variables for the status change healthy to diseased without sporulation. The larger the font size, the higher the correlation coefficient. (TIF)

Absolute values of Pearson’s correlation coefficients (r) within selected microclimatic variables for the status change diseased without sporulation to sporulation. The larger the font size, the higher the correlation coefficient. (TIF)

Microclimate records dataset. (XLSX)

Pod observations dataset. (XLS)

Meteorological mean values throughout the day (means of 462 days from 8 May, 2012 to 13 August, 2013). (TIF)

REFERENCE: Phillips-Mora, W.; Castillo, J.; Arciniegas, A.; Mata, A.; Sánchez, A.; Leandro, M.; Astorga, C.; Motamayor, J.; Guyton, B.; Seguine, E.; Schnell, R. 2009. Overcoming the main limiting factors of cacao production in Central America through the use of improved clones developed at CATIE. ABSTRACT Cacao cultivation has been an important com...

Cacao cultivation has been an important component of Central American culture and commerce since pre-Columbian times. However, during the last decades of the 20 th century, cacao production declined considerably in this region due to the dramatic impact of pod diseases, the low yield-potential of the plantations, and the frequent periods of low pri...