Cocoa Tree

About Cocoa Tree:

• It is an important plantation crop grown for chocolates around the world. It is known as a crop of humid tropics and is native to the Amazon basin of South America.
• Cocoa trees grow about 20 degrees north and south of the equator in regions with warm weather and abundant rain, including West Africa and South America. 
• Required climatic conditions:
  • It can be grown up to 300 m above mean sea level. 
  • Rainfall:It requires an annual rainfall of 1500-2000 mm.
  • Temperature:The temperature range of 15°-39°C with optimum of 25°C is considered ideal.
  • Soil:It requires deep and well-drained soils. The majority of the area under Cocoa cultivation is on clay loam and sandy loam soil. 
  • It grows well in the pH range of 6.5 to 7.0.
• Shade requirement: It evolved as an under-storey crop in the Amazonian forests. Thus commercial cultivation of cocoa can be taken up in plantations where 50 per cent of light is ideally available. 
• Major producing regions in the world:About 70 per cent of the world’s cocoa beans come from four West African countries: Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon.
• In India, it is mainly cultivated in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadumainly as intercrop with Arecanut and Coconut.