Black pod disease is wreaking havoc on cocoa farms in Cameroon’s Southwest region, one of the country’s most important cocoa-producing zones, following weeks of heavy rainfall and a surge in counterfeit agrochemicals, according to officials and industry experts.
The fungal infection, also known as brown rot, thrives in wet conditions and attacks both cocoa pods and trees. Cameroon, ranked as the world’s fifth largest cocoa producer, has seen the disease spread rapidly across key growing hubs including Muyuka, Mbonge, and Kumba, Reuters reported.
“It is a serious issue,” said Jackson Ntapi Nkwentang, the agriculture delegate for the Southwest region. “We are advising [growers] to intensify spraying.” He noted that since July, torrential downpours have created ideal conditions for the outbreak.
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Epie Promise Ngolepie, a cocoa consultant with the agri-tech firm Help Farmers Cameroon, warned that many smallholder farmers are turning to cheap, smuggled fungicides from Nigeria and Ghana that are ineffective and often misused.
“Smallholder farmers don’t want to follow expert advice because they think they know better,” Ngolepie explained, adding that even his own sharecropper had applied the wrong agrochemicals. “Most chemical dealers are not agronomists; they just want to sell,” he told Reuters.
Authorities say the crisis has been aggravated by poor farming practices, such as late pruning, inadequate field clearing, and inconsistent spraying with approved fungicides.
Efforts to clamp down on counterfeit inputs have also been slowed by a month-long lockdown imposed by armed separatist fighters across the English-speaking regions, Nkwentang said.
For farmers, the outbreak has delivered devastating economic consequences, cutting yields and making it nearly impossible to repay loans, provide for their families, or meet expenses for the new school year.
“We don’t even know how to survive this season,” said Divine Ntam, a farmer near Kumba. “The chemicals we bought aren’t effective, and the rains have really messed up things.”
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Image Credit: Reuters
