INTERVIEW - Shoot Disease Seen as Big Threat to Ghana's Cocoa
Date: 25-May-06
Country: GHANA
Author: Orla Ryan
Dr Yaw Adu-Ampomah, executive director of the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG), told Reuters that between five and 10 percent of the country's cocoa trees were affected by the virus.
It is spread by insects, reduces yields and kills the worst-affected trees within two years.
"It is a very serious threat, it can reduce drastically the crop," he said in an interview late on Tuesday.
CRIG is the research arm of Ghana's cocoa industry regulator Cocobod.
"In the past five years, it has been increasing in intensity every year ... in the past two years we have been removing (diseased trees) but not at the intensity which is required due to the lack of funding," Adu-Ampomah said.
Tackling swollen shoot disease could help Ghana increase its cocoa output from current annual season production of about 600,000 tonnes, he added.
The disease was present in all of Ghana's cocoa-growing areas, including the heavy-yielding Western Region, where incidence was previously low.
CRIG was applying for European Union funding to help cover the cost of removing affected trees, compensating farmers and distributing disease-resistant cocoa varieties.
But extension services needed to be intensified to help farmers identify the presence of the disease, Adu-Ampomah said.
LOSS TO FARMERS
Some farmers were reluctant to destroy trees because they are almost entirely dependent on the crop for their livelihood.
Even when compensated for the loss, many farmers are financially devastated by the removal of trees which have taken years to mature.
"It is a big loss to the farmer, after planting and taking very good care of the tree," Adu-Ampomah said.
He cited the case of Ghana's Eastern Region as evidence of the extent of damage that swollen shoot disease can cause.
"The Eastern region was producing the bulk of Ghana's cocoa, about 200,000 tonnes in the 1960s. Now it is producing 30,000 tonnes. Old age was part of it, but a substantial part of it could be attributed to disease," he said.
Traditionally, Ghanaian cocoa farmers have struggled with black pod disease as well as swollen-shoot disease.
But a nationwide spraying campaign in recent years has reduced the incidence of black pod and helped lift national production to a peak of 736,000 tonnes in 2003/04.
The spraying to counter black pod disease was continuing but on a limited scale, covering about 50 to 60 percent of Ghana's cocoa farms, Adu-Ampomah said.
