Nigeria’s Cross River State Cocoa Farms Hit by Black Pod Disease

Sept. 2, 2022 at 1:28 p.m. ET

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By Obafemi Oredein

Special to Dow Jones Newswires

IBADAN, Nigeria–Cocoa farmers in Nigeria’s Cross River state are battling an outbreak of the black pod disease following regular and heavy rainfall the last two weeks, a cocoa industry official and traders said.

“Our farmers are up in arms with their agro-chemicals trying to curtail the black pod disease in their farms caused by incessant rains,” said Sayina Riman, a former president of the Cocoa Association of Nigeria.

Though the rains were beneficial to cocoa by providing moisture and nutrients, he said, “farmers would have to apply chemicals whose cost is always high.”

Cross River state is the largest cocoa producer in Nigeria’s southeast region and the second-largest grower in the country after Ondo in the southwest region, according to Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria.

The midcrop has been “very poor in the state,” Mr. Riman said. But the 2022-23 main crop cocoa is now being threatened by the black pod at a time when farmers should be getting ready to harvest the crop.

Black pod disease thrives in wet and damp conditions on cocoa farms due to incessant rains without sunshine. It can destroy around 40% of Nigeria’s annual cocoa production if left untreated, officials at the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria said.

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