Cacao plants are slated to disappear by as early as 2050 thanks to warmer temperatures and dryer weather conditions, but scientists at the University of California are teaming up with Mars company to try to save the crop before it's too late, says a report by World Economic Forum (WEF).

Cacao plants occupy a precarious position on the globe and they can only grow within a narrow strip of rainforested land roughly 20 degrees north and south of the equator, where temperature, rain, and humidity all stay relatively constant throughout the year. Over half of the world's chocolate now comes from just two countries in West Africa — Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, according to the report.

But the report says scientists are exploring the possibility of using the gene-editing technology CRISPR to make crops that can survive the new challenges.

CRISPR is a new technology that allows for tiny, precise tweaks to DNA that were never possible before and these tweaks are already being used to make crops cheaper and more reliable, said the report. But their most important use, according to the WEF report done in collaboration with Business Insider, may be in the developing world, where many of the plants that people rely on to avoid starvation are threatened by the impacts of climate change, including more pests and a lack of water.

By 2050, rising temperatures will push today's chocolate-growing regions more than 1,000 feet uphill into mountainous terrain — much of which is currently preserved for wildlife, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Mars, the $35 billion corporation best known for Snickers, is aware of these problems and others presented by climate change, said the report.

The reports said in September, the company pledged $1 billion as part of an effort called "Sustainability in a Generation," which aims to reduce the carbon footprint of its business and supply chain by more than 60% by 2050.

"We're trying to go all in here," Barry Parkin, Mars' chief sustainability officer, told Business Insider. "There are obviously commitments the world is leaning into but, frankly, we don't think we're getting there fast enough collectively."

First Published:Apr 30, 2018 4:00 PM IST