For agriculture students to learn about export agricultural crops cocoa. learn climatic and soil requirements learn about uses of cocoa. learn about propagation practices. Major growing areas. planting materials of cocoa. varieties of cocoa. variety characteristics of cocoa

1. Lecture Number -03
Cocoa cultivation
By
H.M.N.M.Watagodakumbura
Senior Lecturer
Hardy Advanced Technological Institute
Ampara

2. • Botanical name- Theobroma cacao
• Family- Sterculiaceae
• Origin- Mexico
• Total extent of cocoa is 2472ha

3. • Products and Uses
• Seeds are the source of commercial cocoa and the main final product
is the chocolate.
• Intermediate cocoa products are cocoa butter, cocoa liquor, cocoa
powder and cocoa cake.
• Cocoa Powder is used in Chocolates, Sweets, Ice creams, Bakery items
and Beverages.
• Cocoa butter is also used in manufacture of soap and cosmetics in
some countries.
Cocoa cultivation

4. • Major Growing Areas
• Suitable conditions for growing cocoa are found
• in the Central,
• North Western,
• Sabaragamuwa,
• Uva,
• Western and Southern provinces of Sri Lanka.
• Major growing districts- Kandy, Kaluthara , Badulla
Kurunegala, Kegalle and Monaragala
Cocoa cultivation

5. • Soils and Climatic needs
• Soil
 The best soils for cocoa are
 deep,
 well drained clay loams rich in organic matter.
 Scattered stones and pebbles are
 tolerable up to 40% of the surface of such soils.
 Unsuitable
 Coarse gravelly soils,
 sandy soils,
 shallow soils and soils underlain by slab rock or
hard laterite
 P.H.: 5-6.5 is recommended
Cocoa cultivation

6. Cocoa ( Theobroma cacao)
• Climate
Altitude : up to 600MSL
Temperature : Most suitable temperature-24 0 C– 27 0 C without much diurnal
variation
Rain fall: Annual average rainfall- 1650 -2500mm is recommended.
• More than 2750mm is not good having pod rot like fungal diseases.
• And Rainfall less than 1000mm is considered as dry period for the crop.
Atmospheric humidity: moist humid conditions
Frequent winds and strong winds - harmful as it decreases humidity
Shade- overhead shade (40-50%) is essential during first 03 years of growth.
Thereafter the shade can be removed with the spread of canopy - 25-30% shade is
adequate.
Altitude 600 MSL
Cocoa ( Theobroma cacao) Temperature 24 0 C - 27 0
C
Rainfall 1650 mm - 2500mm
Shade 40% - 50% -1st 3 years
25% - 30% - for grown
Cocoa cultivation

7. • If shade from old rubber, coconut or forest trees is
not available,
• quick growing trees such as
• banana,
• papaya or
• glyricidia - establish for temporary shade and
• dadap - for permanent shade.
• After 3years of temporary shade should be removed. If use banana , papaya,
gliricidia.
• Cocoa -the most important tree crop for under planting in coconut and rubber
• It is better to grow under coconut trees with lands of 40-50 trees/ac and coconut
trees should be less than 12 years old to get optimum shade levels.
•
Cocoa cultivation

8. Cocoa cultivation Temporary shading

9. Cocoa cultivation

10. Cocoa cultivation

11. Cocoa cultivation

12. Cocoa cultivation

13. • Planting materials
• Selection of good mother trees-
 Vigorous growth,
 Low growth habit
 Short plants makes easy to harvest and
pest control.,
 Resistant to pest and diseases.
 Seasonal bearing pattern,
 Bearing mostly on the trunk and lower
branches
 Over 70 pods/tree/year. Less 25 pods to
produce one kg of cured product of
cocoa.

14. • Varieties
• There are three main varieties as
• Criyollo,
• Forastero and
• Trinitario.
• In Sri Lanka “criollo” variety produce fine and flavour cocoa but
currently most of the cocoa found are crosses of above three main
varieties.

15. Characteristics Criollo Forestero
1.Pod colour Immature-Red-
green
Immature -
green
Mature- yellow
orange
Mature- yellow
2.Pod surface Smooth furrow Rough furrow
3. Yield low High
4.Pericarp Thin thick
5.Fermentation
period
3-4 days 6 days
Trinitario
The characters are in-
between Criollo and
forestero

16. • Crop establishment
• Propagation
 Seed propagation - normally used . Seed viability will be loss within
short period of time.
 Vegetative propagation -experimental studies.
 Bud grafted cocoa plants-in multiplying high yielding varieties.

17. • Seed Propagation
• 1. Pods, taken from selected cocoa lines, are opened to get fresh seeds
• 2. seeds are thoroughly washed and rubbed with dry sand to remove the
mucilage layer.
• 3.Seeds can be sown in a sand bed-
• Just after germination, sprouted seeds should be transferred into the polythene
bags.
•
• or
• can be directly planted in a poly bag with the size of 20cm x 10cm filled with
equal mixture of top soil, cow dung and sand.
• It takes about 8-10 days for germination.
• When the seedlings are about 3-4 months,
• and when they come a height of 30cm, they are ready for transplanting.