The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa will head the new Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Coffee and Cacao, a research programme funded by the US Department of State. The initial obligation is $8 million under an agreement that could run for up to five years. Clemson University serves as co-director, with World Coffee Research, the Coffee Quality Institute, several US universities and Mars among the partners.
The work will focus on breeding coffee and cacao varieties that withstand disease and drought, on farm management and post-harvest processing, and on building research capacity in producing countries across Latin America, Africa and Asia. Hawaii is the only US state growing both crops commercially, and its coffee output has slipped in recent years, largely because of leaf rust.
The programme launches this month and partly fills the gap left by the dismantling of USAID in 2025. Specific research sites and projects have yet to be announced.
Source: Daily Coffee News