Farmers in Ivory Coast claim that Rain will help the mid-crop of cocoa

The majority of Ivory Coast’s cocoa-growing regions experienced rains last week that were mainly above average, which was beneficial for the April to September mid-crop, which is anticipated to begin early and be larger than last year’s output, farmers said on Monday.

Ivory Coast, the top producer of cocoa in the world, is currently in its dry season, which is defined as the period from the middle of November to the beginning of March.

Several average-sized and other pods were virtually ripe on the trees, according to farmers around the nation, and they predicted that last week’s moisture would help the development of fruit.

Farmers reported that they could now clearly see the mid-crop, which would begin gradually by the following week and pick up from mid-April. The mid-crop would be completed primarily between May and June, but large quantities of beans will depart the bush in July and August, they stated.

“The recent rains will be very helpful to the trees. Presumably, the harvest will start the following week “According to Salame Kone, a farmer in the vicinity of Soubre’s western region, 18.3 millimeters (mm) of rain fell there last week, 7.3 mm more than the five-year average.

Similar remarks were made in Agboville’s southern section and Abengourou’s eastern region, where rainfall was well above average. In the southern part of Divo, rainfall was below average, although farmers said that the amount of rain was ideal for the development of pods.

Farmers said they were pleased with the weather but more downpours in the upcoming weeks would help tiny cocoa pods to survive as the weather remained too hot. Farmers in the central regions of Bongouanou and Yamoussoukro, where rains were well above average last week, and in the centre-western region of Daloa, where rains were below average, expressed their happiness with the weather last week.

“Many little pods will attain maturity for plentiful harvests of the mid-crop if we have at least two abundant rains well distributed this month,” said Celestin Affessi, a farmer near Bongouanou, where 23.8 mm of rain fell last week, 9.2 mm above average.

In Ivory Coast last week, average temperatures varied from 28.1 to 32.4 degrees Celsius.

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