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Ivory Coast retains lead in cocoa production against Nigeria, others –Report

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Ivory Coast retains lead in cocoa production against Nigeria, others –Report

Abundant rainfall in 2015, and early part of 2016, plus other inputs have soared cocoa production level of Ivory Coast over other countries in West Africa.

It beat Cameroun, Ghana and Nigeria, in second, third and fourth positions respectively, according to a report by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), published on Tuesday.

In the past years, cases of short rainfall and insects caused reduction in the volume of yields of the crops, but this improved in 2015 and the first six months of 2016, in addition to farmers’ access to fertilizers and insecticide on the farms more than in the previous years, according to the report.

Thus last year, Ivory Coast cocoa export rose to 1.57 million tons from 1.5 million tons, while Cameroun had a rise of 200 tons from its 500 tons, with Ghana having 540 tons while Nigeria increased from 400 to 500 tons in the same period under review.

It was also gathered that Nigeria’s promise of returning to agro-based exports threw a change to the neighbouring countries, which had been surviving with farm produce while Nigeria focused on oil and gas in the past decades.

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But the sudden fall of oil price and shortage in daily production, due to militancy in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta, leading to economic recession, have combined to see the country venturing a return to cocoa production among other crops.

However, the report said in most of Ivory Coast’s main cocoa regions, there was a sign of a boost in the forthcoming October-to-March main crop harvest projection, with the only challenge being lack of adequate sunshine needed to accelerate the growth of small pods.

“Getting the right mix of rain and sunny spells during July and August is crucial for strengthening the development of cocoa pods and avoiding rot and disease ahead of the main crop in the world’s leading cocoa producer,” it further stated.

In the eastern region of Abengourou, known for the high quality of its beans, farmers reported abundant rainfall last week after dry spells earlier in the summer.

In Cameroun and Ghana also, farmers are expecting bigger yields this year with the same application, while Nigeria and Senegal were yet to submit report of the production projection for 2016.

But the Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh, said Nigeria had no option than to lay emphasis on agriculture for local food consumption and export, but he was silent on the country’s performance on cocoa production.

By Emma Eke…

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