Nigeria Content Online

Unseasonal rains in
Ivory Coast’s key cocoa-growing regions last week will support the
development of the main crop as the dry dusty harmattan wind continues
to blow gently, farmers and analysts said on Monday.

Top grower Ivory
Coast is in the dry season, which also brings the harmattan south from
the Sahara, and, if harsh, can kill flowers and small pods on cocoa
trees.

However, farmers reported a mild harmattan for now and said rain in several regions was a boon for the crop.

“We are very happy
with the rain. It gives us lots of hope for the quality of the beans
that we will harvest in February and March,” said Lazare Ake, who farms
near Soubre, at the heart of the cocoa belt.

“I think there will be lots of cocoa this year. Last year, there wasn’t so much rain,” he added.

Ivory Coast’s cocoa
regulator projected output of 800,000 tonnes during the main crop, down
100,000 tonnes from last season due to black pod disease.

But analysts and
farmers said the forecast is low and said good weather would push
volumes above year-ago levels. Exporters told Reuters on Monday cocoa
output was running near even with last year’s, even while a political
crisis grips the country.

One analyst working for an industrial plantation in Soubre, a western region, reported 14 mm of rain over the week.

“The harmattan has
been blowing for three days in our region. It is not very strong for
the moment, but there is a very dry wind,” the analyst added.

Other regions

In the southern
region of Aboisso, an analyst reported 53 mm of rain over the week,
adding that growing conditions for cocoa remained good despite the
harmattan.

“Weather conditions
have been excellent all year. Over the course of 2010, we recorded
2,005 mm during 123 days of rain. This is better than (in 2009). There
won’t be any problems with the cocoa. The production will be very
good,” the analyst added.

In the
centre-western region of Daloa, which last year accounted for 358,000
tonnes of Ivory Coast’s 1.2 million tonne crop, farmers reported one
good downpour, which they said would help small pods develop during the
dry season.

But farmers said they needed to monitor the wind, given that too much dry weather can lead to dangerous bush fires.

“We have had some
rain. It is good for the small pods. But during the harmattan, we worry
about the bush fires, which have destroyed the plantations,” said
farmer, Attoungbre Kouame.

Similar growing
conditions were reported in the coastal regions of San Pedro and
Sassandra, in the southern regions of Agboville and Divo.

Reuters