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recommended that the forceps be cleaned using cotton soaked in spirit in order to wipe away any
pollen that would have stocked to it by error.
Protection and identification (marking)
Using a protection device: this device is use to cover the flower and can only be taken off after
48hours (2days). And finally a label indicating the following is put : the cross date of the operation
name (initials) of pollinator. In the method without a protective device, place a pin around the
proximity of the pollinated flower.
Counting and controlling the success of the operation (pollination)
Remove of the protective device after 48hours :
- 1st control after 7days
- 2nd control after 15days
- 3rd control after 30 days
- 4th control after 45days
- 5th control after 60days
The success of the whole exercise is visible as from the 4th day.
Follow up of the young pods (fruits)
Maintenance of the field (farm)
- Regular clearing of the farm
- Shed control
- Maintenance pruning of the trees
- Elimination of cherelles and pods not resulting manual pollination.
- Regular sanitation harvest (wilted and rotten cherelles and pods
- Pytosanitary treatment, with fungicides (systemic)
- Every 15 days as from the second control up to harvest
- Mix : Insecticides and fungicides
- 1st treatment in July
- 2nd treatment in August.
Note that on maintenance, the quality of maintenance determine the success of all the work
described above.
- Tools
For each pollinator per ha;
- a forcep with a sharp (pointed) end;
- 1packet of cotton
- 600 isolating devices (+10%)
- 1 litre of spirit to disinfect
- 3000 pins (+10%)
- 25000 labels - a pencil
- fungicide (Benlate) - a pen
- insecticide - a brush
- a waterproof marker
- a pair of scissors
- Period of pollination
Pollination is best carried out at the beginning of the rainy season (march-April) to fertilise only the
young and fresh flowers with fresh pollen to assure a high rate of success. Pollination done in June,
July.will give poor results.
It is also necessary that the pods be already developed before facing the dry season. Cherelles suffer
more from drought than developed fruit, and fall off more, hence waste of labour.
Some Norms
- A well organised and experienced pollinator can pollinate up to 200 flowers per morning period of
which 47% will give seed cocoa pods.
- A well maintained cocoa tree can provide 20 pods/year or 25000pods/ha/yr. to attain this result, it
is necessary to pollinate 54000 flowers (43 flowers per tree) considering 1.250exploitable trees/ha.
- Since we need 70pods (seed pods) to create one hectare (losses in nursery included) it means one
hectare of seed garden can supply seeds to create 357 hectares of production farms.
NB: Cocoa trees in a clonal seed garden which are well maintained and in a fertile are can
withstand the weight of more than 100 pods per tree.
Paper presented by Dieudonn Abolo, during the training of CCSP workers in Barombi Kang, Kumba
from the 12th to 17th March 2007.
HIGH YIELDING COCOA HYBRID DUE JULY 2009
High demand for more productive cocoa seeds has caused South West seed producers to resort to
manual pollination so as to have what they say will be high yielding, and more resistant cocoa.
To kick off the project, the centre for Cocoa and Coffee Seedling Project, CCSP, Kumba trained its
concerned personnel last March before proceeding with the manual pollination which the officials of
the project say will produce the first ready pods that will be given to farmers for free to nurse by July
2009.
Explaining how manual pollination is done, the chief of Centre told TFV that pollen is taken from the
anthers of the male plant and then deposited on the stigma of the flowers of the female plant
manually, after a serous and painstaking process of identifying the male plants and female plants
that are planted separately.
Explaining how care is taken in the process to prevent unwanted breeds, and how the process is
controlled, the chief of Centre Chifor John said some farmers who had got some of the cocoa pods
and nursed them when the research was still going on have already testified that the seeds are
marvellous.
He announced that the first pods from this manual pollination will be available from July up to the
end of the 2009 cocoa season for free to farmers to satisfy the growing demand for cocoa seedlings
which had made it difficult for them to meet.
According to the officials, the pods will be given to farmers to nurse in order to avoid the cost of
transporting the already nursed seedlings. The officials say farmers could nurse their seeds behind
their houses or near their farms but must avoid keeping the cocoa pods after collection from CCSP
for long before nursing because the longer the seeds stay the more they lose their power to
germinate.
According to the chief of centre and other workers of CCSP that are carrying out the manual
pollination, farmers will be sure of the kind of seeds they are planting rather than seeds that have
been fertilised otherwise. To them, the hybrid cocoa seeds from the manual pollination will produce
faster, and then would be more resistant to attacks than the other species.