Below-average rainfall in Ivory Coast’s cocoa-growing regions helped dry the damp soil last week but more sunny spells are needed to boost the September-to-February main crop, \u200bfarmers said on Monday.<\/p>\n
The world’s top cocoa producer is currently in its \u200crainy season, which typically runs from April to mid-November.<\/p>\n
After heavy rains flooded plantations in some regions in late June, farmers said soil moisture remained very high and more sunny spells were needed to avoid \u200bcrop diseases.<\/p>\n
Farmers said they expect to have a clearer indication of the size \u200bof the next main crop by late August.<\/p>\n
They added that flowering would \u2060continue until September and the size of the crop would depend on the \u200bnumber of flowers that would survive and turn into small pods.<\/p>\n
“Flowers are blooming. It’s very \u200bcloudy, even though we need plenty of sunshine,” said Salame Kone, who farms near the western region of Soubre, where 7.3 millimetres (mm) of rain fell last week, 23.6 mm below the five-year average. He \u200badded the situation was not yet alarming.<\/p>\n
In the southern regions of Agboville and Divo \u200band in the eastern region of Abengourou, where rains were below average, farmers said the sky was \u200cregularly \u2060overcast, preventing plantations from benefiting from sunny spells.<\/p>\n
They added it was crucial for the trees to get a good mix of sun and rains during this month for an adequate development of the crop.<\/p>\n
In the west-central region of Daloa and in the central \u200bregions of Bongouanou and \u200bYamoussoukro, where rains were \u2060below average, farmers said a mix of flowers and young pods, known as cherelles, were appearing on trees.<\/p>\n
However, farmers feared a \u200bcold wind blowing since Friday could damage the crop. They also \u200bsaid supply \u2060from the bush was scarce at the moment as the mid-crop was nearing its end.<\/p>\n
“It feels cold, and there’s no sun. This can slow the growth of flowers,” said Florent Koua, \u2060who \u200bfarms near Daloa, where 4.2 mm of rain fell \u200blast week, 19 mm below the five-year average.<\/p>\n
Weekly temperatures across Ivory Coast ranged between 24.4 and 28.1 degrees \u200bCelsius (76 and 83 degrees Fahrenheit).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Below-average rainfall in Ivory Coast’s cocoa-growing regions helped dry the damp soil last week but more sunny spells are needed to boost the September-to-February main crop, \u200bfarmers said on Monday. The world’s top cocoa producer is currently in its \u200crainy season, which typically runs from April to mid-November. After heavy rains flooded plantations in some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14944,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":4,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"Reuters","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,2362,27],"tags":[4303,407],"class_list":["post-21418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-featured","category-west-africa","tag-cocoa-farmers","tag-ivory-coast"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21418"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21419,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21418\/revisions\/21419"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}