IVORY COAST: Ivory Coast rolls out fast-yielding cocoa trees

Record ID: 182094

  • Title: IVORY COAST: Ivory Coast rolls out fast-yielding cocoa trees
  • Date: 5th January 2007
  • Summary: (AD1) DIVO, IVORY COAST (RECENT) (REUTERS) DR. MATHIAS TIA, GENETICS RESEARCHER, WALKING IN COCOA TREE PLANTATION VARIOUS COCOA PODS ON BRANCHES IN PLANTATION (SOUNDBITE) (French) MATHIAS TIA, GENETICS RESEARCHER, NATIONAL CENTRE OF AGRONOMIC RESEARCH (CNRA), SAYING: "These varieties have a productivity of 2,000 kilograms of cocoa per hectare, compared to the productivity we see (currently) from the farmers, which is in the region of maximum 200 to 400 kilograms per hectare, you can see the difference." MORE COCOA TREES IN PLANTATION VARIOUS COCOA PODS (SOUNDBITE) (French) MATHIAS TIA, GENETICS RESEARCHER, NATIONAL CENTRE OF AGRONOMIC RESEARCH (CNRA), SAYING: "These are the varieties that have the technological characteristics requested by the chocolatiers. A hundred cocoa beans weigh more than 100 grams. So the cocoa beans are generally large and it's the type of beans which are sought by the chocolatiers, and the industry."
  • Embargoed: 20th January 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Industry,Lifestyle
  • Reuters ID: LVA9EEG2PS1O57PLA45ZZOW2BN5V
  • Story Text: Ivory Coast is pushing ahead with the roll-out of new fast-yielding and disease-resistant cocoa trees that it hopes will help maintain its position as the world's top producer.
    The West African country, which produces some 1.2 million tonnes of cocoa a year, or around 40 percent of world production, has been providing growers with new seeds since last season with the aim of replanting ageing farms.
    "These varieties have a productivity of 2000 kilograms of cocoa per hectare, compared to the productivity we see (currently) from the farmers, which is in the region of maximum 200 to 400 kilograms per hectare, you can see the difference," said Mathias Tia, a researcher with the Ivorian National Agronomic Research Centre (CNRA), who helped develop the new trees.
    Tia also claims that the new hybrid pods also have an improved cocoa content.
    "These are the varieties that have the technological characteristics requested by the chocolatiers. A hundred cocoa beans weigh more than 100 grams. So the cocoa beans are generally large and it's the type of beans which are sought by the chocolatiers, and the industry," Tia added.
    Agreements signed with the cocoa industry allow the CNRA to research and produce enough seeds to make them available to producers, and at a better price.
    "This confirms what we were saying, the farmers tell us themselves that they get cocoa from trees that are only 18 months old, so from 18 months onwards, these plants can already produce fruit," Tia said.
    Around 400,000 improved seeds had already been distributed to farmers in the 2005/06 season and a further 100,000 since the start of the current season.
    Distribution would continue until February so that the seeds could be planted ahead of the rainy season in April, although a little confusion over price at the start of the campaign meant this year the distribution is slightly slower.
    "The farmers have effectively already adopted our pollenated cocoa pods. There was keen interest among the farmers, who took a lot of seeds (last campaign). This year it's a little slow, but we hope that the farmers will react soon. They were a bit cautious because of problems we had at the start of the campaign," said Mamadou Diarrassouba, the CNRA-Divo Station Chief.
    Diarrassouba also said the new hybrids were not simply aimed at lifting Ivory Coast's overall production but at improving the yield from highly sought-after cultivable land.
    The former French colony has been divided into a rebel-held north and government-run south since a 2002-2003 civil war grew out of a failed attempt to oust President Laurent Gbagbo.
    The buffer zone that keeps the two sides apart, policed by French and United Nations peacekeepers, cuts through the country's cocoa-growing heartland, where sporadic ethnic violence continues, fuelled by competition for land.
    With agriculture accounting for 66 percent of jobs, a shortage of land has been a catalyst in the conflict. Researchers hope new hybrid plants can reduce competition for area.
    The new hybrid is also more resistant to disease. With many of Ivory Coast's plantations ageing, infections like swollen shoot and black pod are a major threat to production.

    AGRICULTURE
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