Cocoa cultivation as an engine of rural development: Impact on the configuration of livelihoods strategies of rural households in Colombia

Héctor Eduardo Hernández-Nuñez, Isabel Gutiérrez-Montes, Juan Carlos Suárez, Hernán J Andrade, Angie Paola Bernal Núñez, Verenice Sánchez Castillo, Gustavo Adolfo Gutiérrez, Fernando Casanoves and Cornelia Butler Flora

PLOS ONE, 2026, vol. 21, issue 8, 1-24

Abstract: Rural conditions in Colombia have changed in recent years, and rural households have had to redesign their livelihood strategies (LS). Cocoa cultivation has accompanied this process of LS configuration, with a differentiated role in each household. This research analyzes the incidence of cocoa cultivation in the LS of rural households in the Colombian departments of Caquetá, Huila, Meta, and Santander. A semi-structured interview and a survey were applied in 406 rural households with cocoa production, examining the types of household LS, the specific household-level assets for cocoa production, and the perception on the representation of the crop for the households were identified. Five types of rural households were identified according to LS configuration: Cocoa Farmers, Livestock-Cocoa Farmers, Coffee-Cocoa Farmers, Diversified and Off-farm-Cocoa Farmers. It was found that cocoa cultivation has a different role and conditions in the types of households according to the LS adopted, a difference that was more accentuated at the departmental level. Households of Santander have better capital endowment for cocoa production; the opposite is the case in Caquetá. We found that cocoa production has a positive relationship (p

Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0355387

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0355387

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