(Ecofin Agency) - In Cote d’Ivoire, the Coffee and Cocoa Council (CCC) will develop a 5-year programme to fight cocoa’s swollen shoot disease. This was announced by the regulatory authority last Monday, during a workshop organized in Bouaflé, in the North Western part of the country, Xinhua reported. 

The scheme which will go from 2017 to 2022 and cost overall $63 million (FCFA34.5 billion), will consist in forced removal and replanting of infected trees on over 100,000 hectares of plantations.

Throughout the programme, CCC will support farmers in various ways including provision of inputs (seedlings, herbicides, insecticides) and grafting materials.

The swollen shoot it should be recalled, is a plant pathogenic virus tansmitted by mealybugs, causing stem/root swelling, yellowing and dropping of leaves.

Around 800,000 farmers grow cocoa trees in Cote d’Ivoire, on two million hectares.   

Espoir Olodo