Outlines:
The
Cultivated
Botany
Insect
species of cocoa
Harvesting
The crop originated from the foot of the Andes in the Upper reaches of Amazon
river.
Theobroma contains about 22 species, all locally used for refreshing beverages,
cooked dishes and jellies.
The Spaniards, Dutch, and Portuguese introduced cocoa to their overseas territories.
By 1874, cocoa got to Nigeria and Ghana from Fernando Po (now Malabo).
By 1887, cocoa established in Ibadan - seedlings from Botanical Garden, Ebute-Meta Lagos.
Trading companies
Missionaries
Soldiers
Chiefs
Farmers associations
Cooperatives
Departments of Agriculture
The
Criollo group:
Lignified mesocarp.
Cultivated in Brazil, West Africa, Central America, South East Asia and
Caribbean Island.
When grown from seeds cacao attains anthesis between 24 and 36 MAT and
fully matured at about 10 YAT.
10 YAT, taproot well developed, (1.5m) with a mass of root hairs covering 5
6 m around cacao.
Thus, there can be 1st and 2nd jorquette which form the framework of cacao.
pruning starts at the level of 2nd jorquette through the removal of excessive orthotropic
shoots chupons.
Each flush results in the production of 5 6 alternate leaves with short petioles and 4 5
flushes occur in a year.
The young pigmented leaves may be pale-green, pink or deep blue depending on variety,
mature leaves are dark-green with 7 9cm petiole length.
In mature cocoa, fruiting occurs twice a year in the tropics dry (November /
December) and rainy (June / July) seasons.
Within 36 hours after pollination, fertilization occurs leading to the formation of a young
okra-sized pod cherelle.
It takes up to 150 180 days between fertilization and pod maturation. Ripe pods are
light-yellow in colour and thus ready for harvesting.
A cocoa pod contains 30 40 beans on the average and 50 60 pods needed to plant an
hectare of cocoa spaced 3m x 3m.
Site Selection
2 major factors must be considered while selecting a site for cocoa plantations establishment:
climatic and soil factors.
Climatic factors:
Cocoa is a low altitude crop, performing best within 100 300m above sea level (asl). It can be grown
at 700m asl.
Cocoa is sensitive to water deficiency particularly when in competition with other plants (shade
plants, wind breaks and weeds) and also to excess water in the soil.
It thrives within wide rainfall ranges of 1000 3000mm or more per year.
The site should enjoy an evenly distributed rainfall of 150mm/month and at least for 9 months.
With provision of irrigation and limited occurrence of dry winds, cocoa can be cultivated completely
without rain.
Cocoa responds to temperature variations: the maximum being 30 -320C while the minimum is 18
210C. At a temperature lower than 100C, cacao becomes damaged.
Cocoa enjoys high relative humidity of between of between 70 80%, above which disease
infection occurs and below which (obtainable in the dry season) cocoa leaves become limp and
droop, thus causing severe defoliation.
The deleterious effects of drying and strong winds like harmattan (in West Africa) is reduced
through wind breaks, shade trees or even by high density planting. This is because cacao
rooting is superficial thus offering little resistance to strong and drying winds.
Easy establishment
Provision
season
Little competition wit young cocoa transplants for
moisture and nutrients
Should not serve as alternative host to cocoa disease
and insect pests
Easy removal when no longer needed
Its removal should not pose any threat to the plantation.
Soil Factors
The soil on which cocoa will be planted should satisfy
the following conditions:
Sandy soil is not suitable except it contains high organic matter and not under prolonged
hot and dry season.
High organic matter content in the topsoil is essential for good growth and high
productivity.
Cocoa beans readily germinate when sown and lose viability easily on extraction
from pods within 5 t days unless specially treated with moist fine sand or
sawdust. They retain viability for 4 weeks inside pod after harvesting.
Seedlings bags of 20/25cm x 12cm are used for raising the seedlings. The are filled
with sifted top soil, heavily watered the previous day and arranged under a shade
in the nursery.
The beans are sown at seeding rate of 2 per bag and later thinned to 1 per bag
after germination. Daily light watering till germination at 7 -10 days. Adequate
watering follows.
Regularly examine for the incidence of disease and insect pests. Seedlings that
show symptoms of bacterial or viral infections must be burnt outside the plot.
Fungal and insect attacks are chemically controlled.
In preparing the land for cocoa transplanting, some trees are left unfelled to act as
windbreaks (upper storey).
The field should have been planted to a temporary shade of plantain suckers the
previous year or simultaneously with cocoa seedlings (middle storey) at same
planting density with cocoa (100% shade density).
Both upper and middle storey are to provide conducive environments for cocoa
transplants when eventually transplanted.
Transplanting of cocoa seedlings is carried out when the rains are steady.
Transplanting contd.
Most serious disease of cocoa in West Africa, especially, Nigeria and Cameroon.
Caused by Phytophtora megakarya, during the rainy season when the relative humidity is higher
than 80%.
The causative organism had hitherto been P. palmivora, but the strains had been brought to a low
level.
rotting of pods which begins with small brown spot with irregular water soaked margins.
Enlargement of brown spot and downy mould until the entire pod is covered
The beans contained become rotted. This may take up to 18 days in matured and normal-sized
pods.
Under severe attacks, especially when there is long periods of rains cool weather, chupons,
seedlings and leaves are attacked and killed.
Frequent removal of weeds / other plants that can increase the relative humidity of the
plantation.
Swollen shoot
A viral disease which may not appear till 6 months after cacao is infected.
Characteristics of infection:
A network of red vein banding
Vein clearing
Chlorosis
Swellings of the stems, fan branches, chupons and seedlings
Infected pods become rounded and small with some mottling.
Infected cocoa seedlings have reduced plant height, stem diameter, number
of leaves, number of roots and root length.
The disease does not affect stem / root ratio.
Control measures:
Removal and burning of the infected cacao
Breeding programme has put the disease under check through the
introduction of the resistant / varieties.
Cherelle wilt
(1) Sahlbergella singularis (Brown mirids): Feed on pods, chupons, soft and hard wood
branches and tips.
(2) Distantiella theobromae (Brown mirids): Feed on pods, chupons and fresh green
shoots especially, on young plants. Mainly found in Ife-Ondo-Akure area of Nigeria.
Mirids feed at night and rest during the day at the axils of leaves and behind the pods.
Mealy bugs
Control methods:
Chemical control method is effective, but the hard cuticle of the insect prevents
penetration of the insecticide.
Chemically killing the ants that provide shelter for mealy bugs is found effective.
Exposure of mealy bugs following killing of the ants results in the reduction in numbers of
the mealy bugs.
Biological control method through the use of mealy bug predators has not been
effective.
Spraying of a fungus (Cephalosporium sp.) cultured in rice and crushed in water is very
effective against these mealy bugs.
It takes 150 180 days between pollination and ripening in cocoa, depending on varieties.
Only mature and ripe pods are harvested, diseased and damaged pods must not be processed
for markets.
Harvesting should be regular and frequent in order to avoid damage due to over-ripening,
disease and animals.
In a case of irregular / delayed harvesting, the beans start germinating in-situ, such cocoa is
unsuitable for marketing.
Harvesting of unripe cocoa pods results in poor-quality beans with low aromatic compounds
after fermentation.
During harvesting flower cushion must not be damaged, if damaged, subsequent years
harvests will be reduced.
Cocoa pods must not be pulled off in order to avoid any damage to flower cushions.
Pods are ready for harvesting when colour changes from green to yellow/pink/red, depending
on varieties.
Harvesting contd.
A sharp knife with short handle, for removing pods well above ground level.
A sharp knife attached to a long pole (go-to-hell) for plucking pods at the top-most part of cacao.
Never use a cutlass. Use a blunt object such as a stone or a thick piece of wood for the breaking.
This is to avoid damage to cocoa beans.
Extracted beans with mucilaginous pulp are collected in a clean container for fermentation.
Fermentation
Fermentation in cocoa is a process by which mucilaginous pulp surrounding the beans is removed under the gradual influence of heat
and pressure for the purpose of removing the beans bitter taste and the development of acceptable bean flavour and colour.
To get the proper taste, colour and flavour associated with cocoa
products.
To loosen the skin from the cotyledon thereby allowing easy and proper
de-shelling during processing.
Heap fermentation
Basket fermentation
Sweat box fermentation
Tray fermentation.
Heap Fermentation
Fresh cocoa beans are piled on the platform until a heap of 60 90 cm high is
made.
The heap is covered with the leaves again and weigh down with logs of wood in
order to retain the heat.
The heap is thoroughly turned on the 3rd and 5th days with a wooden spade or hand.
The cocoa beans are fully fermented and ready for drying on the 7 th day.
Basket Fermentation
Three wooden boxes (90 x 90 x 90 cm each / 120 x 120 x 120 cm) each, perforated at the bottom
are used.
The boxes are placed on raised platforms for aeration and drainage.
This method requires a ventilated and roofed building with adequate drainage system against rains.
The fresh beans are placed on the top-most box, covered with sufficient banana/plantain leaves
and sacks and pressed with stones / wood.
The beans from the top-most box are turned into the middle and last boxes on the 3 rd and 5th days
respectively and covered as before.
On the 7th day the beans are properly fermented and ready for drying.
Tray Fermentation
The bottom of the tray is covered with slatted mat made from palm frond midribs.
The 4 sides of the tray (75 x 75 x 10 cm) are made of strong wood.
The trays are filled with the wet beans to a desired level.
The first tray is placed on a raised wooden platform to facilitate aeration and drainage.
The number of the trays used depends on the volume of the cocoa beans, but 10 or
more trays could be stacked upon one another to a convenient height for handling.
The wet beans, when loaded into the trays are covered with banana / plantain leaves
and sacks to retain the heat.
The beans are properly fermented on the 4th day of fermentation and are ready for
drying.
The average cost of a tray is not much and a try can be used for more than 2 years.
No mixing of beans required and good and well-fermented cocoa are obtained.
Types of cocoa: Criollos ferment at a shorter periods compared to Forasteros and Trinitarios.
Low temperature of high altitude (800 m asl) slows the rate of fermentation.
The weight of pulp and sugars per bean depend on growing conditions.
Quantity of cocoa:
A minimum quantity of about 70 90 kg of fresh bean is needed per fermentation unit in order to have a
satisfactory fermentation.
Duration of fermentation:
Inadequately fermented cocoa bean has purple colour and this gives a bitter and astringent product.
An excessively long fermented cocoa bean runs the serious risk of having a very bad
commencement of putrid fermentation.
Drying.
to ensure that cocoa is kept under good conditions for storage and transportation.
If drying is too rapid, oxidation may be prevented, acetic acid may be retained in the
cotyledon resulting in excessive acidity of the cocoa beans.
Flat beans, germinated beans and broken beans as well as foreign bodies must be removed.
Methods of drying.
Sun-drying
Drying autobus
Simple dryers
Mechanical dryers
Automated workshops.
A well-dried cocoa bean will crack when squeezed between the fingers.
Cut through the sample beans with a knife, if properly dried, the cotyledon will separate
easily.
Grading of cocoa.
Grade 1 cocoa: less than 3 % slaty, mouldy and defective beans each.
Grade 2 cocoa: less than 5 %, 4 % and 5 % slaty, mouldy and defective beans
respectively.
The international standards state that the net weight of a cocoa bag must be
62.5 kg, (16 bags makes a ton).
Sorting and elimination of flat, broken, germinated beans and other impurities.
The bags must be stored at least 7 cm above the ground in order to allow air
circulation.
There must be at least a passage of 60 cm between the walls and the bags and
between bags of different types of cocoa.
Periodic checking of the moisture content of each lots must be carried out.
Black soaps
Herbs
Chocolates
Ice cream
Cocoa juice
Wine production
Jin production
Hair cream
Body cream
Toilet soaps
Fire wood
Wrapping of pap
Employment generation
Income generation.