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Chocolate could soon be a thing of the past, after scientists warned that the cacao plant, from which chocolate is made, could be extinct within 32 years.

Over half of the world's chocolate comes from just two countries in West Africa - Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana - where the temperature, rain, and humidity provide the perfect conditions for cacao to thrive.

But the threat of rising temperatures over the next three decades, caused by climate change, is expected to result in a loss of moisture from the ground, which scientists say could upset this delicate balance.

According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a temperature rise of just 2.1 degrees centigrade could spell an end for the chocolate industry worldwide by 2050.

(Image: Adam Gerrard/Sunday Mirror)

Farmers in the region are already looking at moving cacao production areas thousands of feet uphill into mountainous terrain - much of which is currently preserved for wildlife.

But a move of this scale could destroy ecosystems that are already under threat from illegal farming and deforestation.

Part of the problem, according to Doug Hawkins from London-based research firm Hardman Agribusiness, is that cacao farming methods have not changed for hundreds of years.

"Unlike other tree crops that have benefited from the development of modern, high yielding cultivars and crop management techniques to realise their genetic potential, more than 90% of the global cocoa crop is produced by smallholders on subsistence farms with unimproved planting material," he told Mail Online .

(Image: Getty)

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"All the indicators are that we could be looking at a chocolate deficit of 100,000 tonnes a year in the next few years."

Now scientists at the University of California at Berkeley have teamed up with American confectionery company Mars, in an attempt to keep chocolate on the menu.

Using the controversial gene-editing technology known as CRISPR they are trying to develop a version of the cacao plant capable of surviving - and thriving - in dryer, warmer climates.

CRISPR has received widespread media attention because of its potential to eradicate human diseases and make so-called "designer babies".

(Image: Getty)

However, Jennifer Doudna, the UC Berkeley geneticist who invented CRISPR, thinks its most useful effects will be on plants rather than humans.

"Personally, I’d love a tomato plant with fruit that stayed on the vine longer," Doudna, who is an avid gardener, told Business Insider .

If the team's work on the cacao plant is successful, it could remove the need for farmers in West Africa to relocate to higher ground, and perhaps even allow cacao to be grown elsewhere in the world.