Cocoa spacing, pruning and random death
There are two contrasting systems of cocoa cultivation: the plantation system, as described in textbooks and generally officially recommended, in with nursery-raised seedlings are planted at relatively wide spacings and the trees are later subject to strict pruning; an the West African peasant system, under which most of the world's cocoa is now produced, using seed-at-stake, close spacing, and little or no pruning. Attention is drawn to the paucity of experimental evidence in favour of the principal elements of the plantation system, i.e. wide spacing and strict pruning, and to the fact that such little evidence as there is comes from experiments in which these factors have been studied separately and not in factorial combination. It is argued that an interaction is to be expected such that the elements of the system are complementary. Furthermore, experimental evidence tends to fail to give due weight to the occasional death of trees from root rot, canker, etc., because (a) many experiments now being reported are young and there have been few deaths yet, and (b) when many deaths have occurred and experiment will usually be written off. One of the chief points in favour of the West African peasant system is that an annual random death rate of up to two per cent is beneficial rather than detrimental, whereas such a rate would ruin "plantation" cocoa in 20 years
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| Format: | biblioteca |
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Tafo (Ghana)
1971
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| Subjects: | THEOBROMA CACAO, ESPACIAMIENTO, PODA, CULTIVO, ENFERMEDADES DE LAS PLANTAS, INTERACCION PODA ESPACIAMIENTO, MUERTE OCASIONAL, CLONES AMAZONAS, CLONES AMELONADOS, AFRICA OCCIDENTAL, |
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