Mitigation of cadmium contamination of cocoa (Four day short course for farm managers, technicians and trainers)
Pre-requisite: No pre-requisites
Course description: Cadmium contamination of foods and their effect on human health. Sources of cadmium contamination of soils. The cadmium map for Trinidad and Tobago. Cocoa as a bioaccumulator of cadmium. The exposure of human being to cadmium from cocoa. The EU legislation and its impact on export of cocoa into the European Union. Factors influencing the availability of soil cadmium to the cocoa tree and its partitioning into various parts. Pathways to mitigating cadmium bioaccumulation in cocoa. Innovations in mitigating cadmium contamination of cocoa beans. Practicals on soil sampling, soil preparation for analysis and chemical analytical methods to determine total and available cadmium. Agronomic approaches to mitigating cadmium bioaccumulation. Soil amelioration approaches to reducing the availability of cadmium through chelating and sequestration. Approaches to phytoremediation and bioremediation. Practicals on on-farm amelioration methodologies. Genetic differences in cadmium bioaccumulation and partitioning and the use of grafting methodologies to reduce cadmium uptake and partitioning. Emerging opportunities for mitigating cadmium bioaccumulation. The student at the end of the course will be able to implement a holistic strategy to reduce the contamination of cocoa soils and to reduce the uptake and accumulation of cadmium into cocoa beans.
Resources: Field trip to farms, training at the IFCIC cocoa orchard, printing services and office support. Provision of breaks, bench fee.