The Cocoa Development Company (SODECAO) has announced the distribution of four million cocoa plants to cocoa farmers in Cameroon in the cocoa season of 2019-2020. The announcement was made in a press release released on April 23, 2020.
This distribution of cocoa plants by SODECAO aims towards “boosting cocoa production, regenerate old plantations and supply cocoa processing units.”
The plants to be distributed are “high yielding hybrid cocoa plants (1000 to 2000 kg / ha) with undeniable advantages like resistance to brown rot and insect attack in particular. They also have the physical and organoleptic characteristics sought after in the chocolate industry . They come from beans whose pods are obtained by manual pollination in three main seed fields, namely: Nkoemvone (South), Mengang (Center) and Abong-Mbang ( East) ” the Director General of SODECAO, Jean-Claude Eko’o Akouafane says.
To benefit from this support, you must be a major Cameroonian regardless of sex and have at least one hectare of land suitable for cocoa farming.
But, “the applicant should be accompanied by a supervisor from SODECAO or the Ministry of Agriculture in carrying out site selection operations, marking trees to be kept for shade, choosing associated crops and picketing. He should also pay, against a receipt to the head of the unit of the company close to his exploitation, the sum of 50 FCFA per cocoa plant representing the contribution of the beneficiary for the transport of the plants from the nursery to the site of his exploitation.” Finally, the applicant has the obligation to undertake the weeding of his farm at least three times a year while respecting the technical route of sustainable driving popularized by SODECAO.
