IVORY COAST RIPS OFF 100 000 HECTARES OF COCOA TREE TO STOP VIRUS.

100 000 hectares of affected cocoa tree to be ripped off will affect the nations production. 

The world’s biggest cocoa producers, Ivory Coast plans to bring down 100 000 hectares of cocoa tree to stop the spread of a plant virus called swollen shoot.

The effected trees are at the main source  which include the southwest and west of the country. The  strategy was brought up by Gneneyeri Sileu who is in charge of  plant protection at the ministry of agriculture.

 The cocoa tree will be brought down over the first three years followed by two years of quarantine on the land to prevent future spread of the virus. The project will cost over US$4o million.
Hence, there are no plans of replanting yet and at such will affect the nations production. Ivory Coast supplies two million tons of cocoa to the world market annually.

Cocoa swollen shoot virus disease (CSSVD) is an insect-borne pathogen that typically affects a tree’s harvest in the first year of production. Also, kills the tree within three or four years. There is no treatment, the only solution is to pull out and destroy infected trees.

The outbreak was first recorded in 2004 in the central region of Marahoue, where it destroyed more than 8000 hectares.

CSSVD also affects neighboring Ghana, the world’s number two producer, where it was first discovered in 1936.

Also read : NIGERIA AND MOROCCO AGREE DEAL FOR PIPELINE CONSTRUCTION

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