Cameroon: Cocoa farmers seek help over mystery disease

Cameroon: Cocoa farmers seek help over mystery disease

Cocoa farmers in one of Cameroon's leading production areas have asked government to help fight what they described as a 'mystery tree disease, which they said had decimated thousands of plants in the country.

Havoc wreck

The chairman of a local farmers’ cooperative in the South west region of the country, Abraham Abong, said the disease had over the years attacked tree roots, turning them rust-coloured and eventually killing them.

Abong did not say how many trees have been destroyed, but added that over half of his 23,000 members of the Ekona Area Farmers Cooperative Union said their farms had been affected and output had declined this season.

"The disease continues to spread from farms on the upper slopes of Mount Cameroon to valleys now and affecting more and more members of our union," Abong said.

"In fact, I've stopped treating my plants with chemicals because it is just wasting money as more and more trees are destroyed," he added.

Cameroon, one of the world's fifth largest cocoa grower, has forecast cocoa production to reach a season record 230,000 tonnes compared with 197,000 tonnes last season and plans to double cocoa production, one of its main foreign-exchange earners, by 2015.

Reuters/Shakira/Williams