Black pod disease has hit Nigerian cocoa plantations, raising fears of a further drop in output already cut by drier-than-normal weather earlier this year, the main growers' group has said.
Akinwale Ojo, executive secretary of the Cocoa Association of Nigeria (CAN), said the disease was caused by heavy rainfall and a scarcity of chemicals to spray infected trees in the southwest cocoa farming region. "There is a lot of black pod disease on many farms and this will affect yield in the long run if the trees are not sprayed," Ojo said.
"But chemicals are fairly difficult to come by and they are expensive. That has compounded the problem for many farmers who can't afford them," Ojo said from Akure, the capital of Nigeria's main cocoa growing state of Ondo. "We are also worried about the cocoa mice, which will begin to attack farms in August," Ojo said.
Black pod affects 30-40 percent of Nigeria's annual cocoa output and pests around 25 percent, Ojo said. Black pod is a fungal disease that first appears as a small spot on the pod surface and later spreads to the bean itself. Experts say pods can be infected at any age, but are more exposed in the two months before ripening, when the fungus can easily pass from the pod husk to the seed-coat of the bean.
Cocoa trees are vulnerable to pests and diseases which can often be prevented by chemical treatment but many growers in Nigeria, the world's fourth biggest producer, cannot afford them in sufficient quantities. Nigeria's plantations have suffered from decades of neglect, and many produce far below capacity because of limited access to chemicals, loss of skills and poor maintenance. Many trees are showing signs of ageing.
The April-September mid crop, which usually comes in at around 50,000-60,000 tonnes, was hit by a long harmattan season and poor rains in the months before the harvest. Harmattan is a wind that carries dust and sand from the Sahara. The drought-like conditions reduced soil moisture for trees and damaged developing pods.
Recent rains came late to help the mid crop, but had raised hopes for a robust and early start of the October-March main crop, growers and buyers said. But while rain is good for the development of cocoa pods, it also speeds the spread of diseases by washing fungus from tall trees, which are difficult to spray, to shorter trees.
Traders and the International Cocoa Organization estimate Nigeria's cocoa output at around 180,000-220,000 tonnes per year, but the authorities put the figure at over 400,000 tonnes. Officials say Nigeria's ambitious cocoa rehabilitation programme, launched in 2005, is yielding the desired results.
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