First phase of Ghana cocoa spraying campaign over
Date: 06-Aug-02
Country: GHANA
Author: Kwabena Sarpong Akosah
Ghana is the world's second biggest producer of cocoa after neighbouring Ivory Coast and its output was affected significantly by black pod last year.
Kwame Sarpong, chief executive of Ghana Cocoa Board (Cocobod) told Reuters in an interview on Sunday that the first part of a three-stage campaign started in the first week of June and ended in July.
He said the second phase would run from mid-August to the end of September, while the last phase would begin in October.
Although the disease is endemic throughout West Africa, a particularly virulent form called phytophthora megakarya arrived in Ghana from Nigeria in the late 1990's.
The fungus infects pods and turns them completely black and rotten. The most significant economic loss arises from the infection of pods in the two months before they ripen.
Sarpong said that not all growing areas were being treated for black pod, only those where the disease was endemic.
He said farmers who were not in areas prone to black pod but still wanted to spray against it would have to buy their own fungicides.
"It is this group of farmers who are complaining of a shortage of fungicides," Sarpong said. "There is adequate fungicide in all the black pod prevalent areas we are spraying."
But farmers in Assin Fosu and Twifu-Hemang-Lower Denkyira in Ghana's Central region said spraying against both insect-related diseases and black pod had not started in their districts because of chemical shortages.
Some crop analysts in Kumasi said several areas in Central region were also having problems with capsids.
Capsids or mirids are small insects which suck sap from trees and pods, causing infection and ultimately the death of a tree if left untreated.
Sarpong said capsid control would start in the middle of August and added that like black pod, capsid control would only be carried out in districts prone to attack.