Cocoa

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.

3. CLIMATE

4. Soil

5. Selection of planting material

6. 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

7. 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.

8. Planting method  

9. Cocoa seedlings are to be planted in pits of 60 cm 3 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

10. Nutrition

11. Training & Pruning

12. Harvesting

13. Processing Banana leaf Fermentation

14. Roasting & Winnowing