1. Development and Field Validation of SMART-C: A Geostatistics and PCA-Based Decision Framework for Site-Specific Cocoa Management in the Brazilian Amazon

Cocoa production plays a major socioeconomic role in Pará State, Brazil’s largest producing region, with annual output exceeding 140 thousand tons. Although Brazil ranks among the world’s leading cocoa producers, most production systems are still managed using field-average approaches that disregard within-field spatial variability of soil attributes and crop performance. This limitation restricts input efficiency and long-term system sustainability in perennial tropical systems.This...