Cultivation Practices of Cocoa for B.Sc (Agri). It is useful for students and for lecture deliver

1. COCOA
B.N.Theobromo cacao
F : Sterculiaceae
Origin : Amazon valley of South
America

2. Uses
Important food crop and as a beverage
crop Fermented, dried, roasted cacao
beans called as cacao ribs. They are
used for preparation of cacao butter,
powder and chocolate.
Cacao ……. ground to liquid form having
55-58% fat and this can be reduced to
28-33% known as Cacao ponoder.
The liquid form after removal of fat
content is known as coco butter, used
for preparation of chocolate, drugs and
soaps
Cocoa mass mixed and sugar and butter to
prepare the chocolates. Different ratios
of sugar and butter milk give different
taste to the product.

4. CLIMATE It is the crop of humid tropical region.
It requires optimum temperature of 250C, minimum of 150C and
maximum of 400C.
It high humidity upto 80%.
Distribution of rainfall is more important than total amount of
rainfall. 100-150 mm/month of rainfall is received at least for 9 months in
a year.
Ideal rainfall is 1500-2000 mm. It must have dry season at least for 3
months.
Highly susceptible to strong winds because shallow roots.
Hot winds to low humidity cause defoliation, dehydration of floral parts
and organs.

5. Soil Cocoa is grown on a wide range of soil types Cocoa trees
are more sensitive to moisture stress than other tropical
crops. The depth of the soil should be at least 1.5m.
The best soil for cocoa is forest soil rich in humus.
Clay loams and sandy loams are suitable.
Shallow soils should be avoided
Cocoa is grown on soils with a wide range of pH from 6-7.5
where major nutrients and trace elements will be available.
Cocoa does not come up in coastal sandy soils where
coconut flourish.

6. Selection of planting material
Cocoa can be propagated through seeds or by
vegetative means. For raising seedlings, seeds of
mature pods are taken from high yielding mother
plants. The mother plants selected should yield
more than 100 pods per year and should have
medium or large green pods with an average dry
bean weight of not less than one gram
The seeds generally lose their viability after
seven days of harvest.
The best period of sowing the seeds in
nursery is December- January so that four to
six months old seedlings will become
available for field planting by the onset of the
monsoon in the traditional areas.
Four to six months old seedlings are generally
used for field planting.

7. Vegetative propagation
Large scale production of superior planting
material is possible in cocoa through vegetative
means like budding and grafting of which
budding is the easiest. The different budding
methods feasible are ‘T’ , inverted ‘T’, patch
and modified Forkert

8. Varieties
• There are three major varietal
groups, namely, Criollo, Forestero
and Trinitario.
• Among these, Forestero is the one
that is commercially grown all over
the world.

9. Planting method
Cocoa is planted as a pure, mixed crop or intercrop.
When planted as a pure crop, Dadap
(Erythnina lithosperma) is planted at 3x 3m spacing to
provide shade.
This requires 4 to 6 years to develop proper canopy to
provide sufficient shade.
Cocoa can be planted as intercrop in coconut gardens
provided the spacing of coconut is sufficient to provide
enough shade and the soil is suited to cocoa.
In arecanut gardens too, cocoa can be planted as
intercrop.

10. • Cocoa seedlings are to be planted in pits
of 60 cm3 filled with compost. Cocoa is
planted in 2.7m x 5m spacing in areca
garden planted with a spacing of 2.7m x
2.7m. Both the crops require
• Shade during summer season after
planting. When cocoa is to be raised as a
mixed crop with coconut, single hedge or
double hedge system of planting can be
adopted. In single hedge system, cocoa
can be planted 2.7 m apart

11. Nutrition

12. Training & Pruning
The chupon (Sucker) or vertical
branch of the seedlings terminates
at the jorquette when four or five
branches develop.
Further chupon develops just
below the jorquette and continues
its vertical growth till another
jorquette develops and so on.
When the first jorquette develops
at a height of 1.5m, the canopy will
form at a height convenient for
harvesting and other operations.

13. Harvesting Harvested matured riped pods which turns to yellow or
orange-yellow colour. Once the flowers are pollinated the
pods take 5-6 months to grow and mature to the yellowish
red color of the ripened pod.
They can be harvested at 10-15 clay by cutting
stalks without injury to cushion area. Harvesting
should not be delayed as it is characterized by
vivipary After harvesting kept aside for 2-3 days
then go for processing.
Yield
Dry beans yield – 4-5 q/ha
Average yield – 5-10 q/ha in other countries like
Brazil and Malaysia.

14. Processing
After harvesting the pods are carefully cut open with sword
like tools and the beans with the pulp are removed.
Fermentation : These are then placed in large boxes, or just in
heaps, covered with banana leaves and left to ferment. The
fermentation process gives flavor to the beans and the pulp
slowly liquefies and runs off as the temperature rises.
This takes up to a week.
The beans start to germinate in the first couple of days of
fermentation, soon to be killed by the high heat produced by
the fermentation. The temperature is maintained at around
450 C to 480C.
The beans are then dried in order to reduce the moisture
content to about 7%..
Banana leaf
Fermentation

15. Roasting
When the dried beans are received at the factory they are fully
roasted at 90 0 C
to 120 0 C for one to two hours in order to develop the flavor of
the beans.
The beans become brown in color and friable (brittle).
Winnowing :Next, the roasted beans are broken down and the
thin shell (chaff) is removed in the process called winnowing.
The remaining pieces of kernel are called cacao nibs, which
have the final chocolate flavor as we know it.
Nibs contain about 400 different chemicals responsible for the
flavor of the final products.
Roasting & Winnowing