IBM announced a new initiative for helping the African infrastructure with a series of researches on cocoa. The plan involves a better understanding of the plant’s genome in order to help the crops from failing due to drought and disease.

Some say that this is strictly a strategy to win the people’s sympathy in order to get an easier access into their profitable developing market. On the other hand, IBM has helped the African infrastructure over the years with more than $120 million, showing a true interest in improving the system.

Even though Africa provides almost 70 percent of the world’s cocoa supplies, there is still a lot of room for development and as Isidore Rigoutsos, manager of the bioinformatics and pattern discovery group at IBM Research, explained to PC World: "Cocoa is an important crop in Africa. If you can increase the yield, you generate more product and you can increase the income of farmers."

In order to get the information access needed, IBM will work together with the US Department of Agriculture and also with the chocolate manufacturer Mars. The researchers from all three bureaus will focus on understanding the bean’s key properties, and once the information will be gathered, a detailed plan for the new crops will be made.

IBM explained that the decision was also influenced by the fact that such cocoa studies have been neglected, with the governments’ main focus being set on corn, wheat and rice.

The project will demand five years of intense work and its results are highly anticipated by the company and also by the African states.