Lagos, June 29 - Good weather in some of Nigeria's key cocoa growing regions has boosted the mid crop and raised hopes of a large main crop, farmers said on Monday.
Heavy rainfall in Nigeria's southwest has increased soil moisture to sustain the April-September mid crop, while good sunshine enhanced flowering and rapid development of pods for the upcoming main crop, they said.
The downpours in the last month lifted bean weight to 280-290 grammes per 300 beans from the traditional 230-250 grammes associated with the mid crop.
The mid crop is also known as the light crop because its beans are smaller, lighter in weight and cheaper than main crop beans harvested between October and March.
"The crop is good because the weather has been wonderful. There has been good rainfall and intermittent sunshine. This is an indication that the main crop will also be good," said grower Ebenezer Akinmode, secretary general of the Tonikoko Farmers Union in southwest Ekiti state.
The rains have so far not raised the threat of an outbreak of the fungal black pod disease, which thrives in damp weather conditions, as was the case in previous years, Akinmode said.
"Despite the heavy rainfall there is no sign of disease in the state yet," Akinmode said.
While rain is good for the development of cocoa pods, it also speeds the spread of disease by washing fungus from tall trees, which are difficult to spray with chemicals, to shorter trees.
Black pod affects 30-40 percent of annual cocoa output in Nigeria, estimated at about 300,000 tonnes, while pests hit a further 25 percent, experts say. Nigeria's is the world's number four cocoa grower.
But farmers in the southeast, Nigeria's second cocoa zone, said more rainfall was needed in the area to compensate for the dry spell in the last month.
"We have been praying for more rains because we have only had rains now and then in the past two months. The more rainfall you have, the more cocoa you expect," Paul Ojong told Reuters from the southeast cocoa hub of Ikom in Cross River state.
Ojong said the lack of rainfall had eliminated the threat of disease, which would have been serious, because many farmers would have been unable to buy chemicals due to the high cost.
"If we had plenty rainfall, farmers would have struggled to get chemicals, but the lack of rain has taken care of the threat of disease outbreak," Ojong said by telephone from Ikom.
He said the lack of rainfall had not drastically affected the development of cocoa pods because plantations in the region were younger and could withstand stress better.