1.
Lecture Number -03
Cocoa cultivation
By
H.M.N.M.Watagodakumbura
Senior Lecturer
Hardy Advanced Technological Institute
Ampara

2.
• Botanical name- Theobroma cacao
• Family- Sterculiaceae
• Origin- Mexico
• Total extent of cocoa is 2472ha

3.
• Products and Uses
• Seeds are the source of commercial cocoa and the main final product
is the chocolate.
• Intermediate cocoa products are cocoa butter, cocoa liquor, cocoa
powder and cocoa cake.
• Cocoa Powder is used in Chocolates, Sweets, Ice creams, Bakery items
and Beverages.
• Cocoa butter is also used in manufacture of soap and cosmetics in
some countries.
Cocoa cultivation

4.
• Major Growing Areas
• Suitable conditions for growing cocoa are found
• in the Central,
• North Western,
• Sabaragamuwa,
• Uva,
• Western and Southern provinces of Sri Lanka.
• Major growing districts- Kandy, Kaluthara , Badulla
Kurunegala, Kegalle and Monaragala
Cocoa cultivation

5.
• Soils and Climatic needs
• Soil
 The best soils for cocoa are
 deep,
 well drained clay loams rich in organic matter.
 Scattered stones and pebbles are
 tolerable up to 40% of the surface of such soils.
 Unsuitable
 Coarse gravelly soils,
 sandy soils,
 shallow soils and soils underlain by slab rock or
hard laterite
 P.H.: 5-6.5 is recommended
Cocoa cultivation

6.
Cocoa ( Theobroma cacao)
• Climate
Altitude : up to 600MSL
Temperature : Most suitable temperature-24 0 C– 27 0 C without much diurnal
variation
Rain fall: Annual average rainfall- 1650 -2500mm is recommended.
• More than 2750mm is not good having pod rot like fungal diseases.
• And Rainfall less than 1000mm is considered as dry period for the crop.
Atmospheric humidity: moist humid conditions
Frequent winds and strong winds - harmful as it decreases humidity
Shade- overhead shade (40-50%) is essential during first 03 years of growth.
Thereafter the shade can be removed with the spread of canopy - 25-30% shade is
adequate.
Altitude 600 MSL
Cocoa ( Theobroma cacao) Temperature 24 0 C - 27 0
C
Rainfall 1650 mm - 2500mm
Shade 40% - 50% -1st 3 years
25% - 30% - for grown
Cocoa cultivation

7.
• If shade from old rubber, coconut or forest trees is
not available,
• quick growing trees such as
• banana,
• papaya or
• glyricidia - establish for temporary shade and
• dadap - for permanent shade.
• After 3years of temporary shade should be removed. If use banana , papaya,
gliricidia.
• Cocoa -the most important tree crop for under planting in coconut and rubber
• It is better to grow under coconut trees with lands of 40-50 trees/ac and coconut
trees should be less than 12 years old to get optimum shade levels.
•
Cocoa cultivation

8.
Cocoa cultivation Temporary shading

9.
Cocoa cultivation

10.
Cocoa cultivation

11.
Cocoa cultivation

12.
Cocoa cultivation

13.
• Planting materials
• Selection of good mother trees-
 Vigorous growth,
 Low growth habit
 Short plants makes easy to harvest and
pest control.,
 Resistant to pest and diseases.
 Seasonal bearing pattern,
 Bearing mostly on the trunk and lower
branches
 Over 70 pods/tree/year. Less 25 pods to
produce one kg of cured product of
cocoa.

14.
• Varieties
• There are three main varieties as
• Criyollo,
• Forastero and
• Trinitario.
• In Sri Lanka “criollo” variety produce fine and flavour cocoa but
currently most of the cocoa found are crosses of above three main
varieties.

15.
Characteristics Criollo Forestero
1.Pod colour Immature-Red-
green
Immature -
green
Mature- yellow
orange
Mature- yellow
2.Pod surface Smooth furrow Rough furrow
3. Yield low High
4.Pericarp Thin thick
5.Fermentation
period
3-4 days 6 days
Trinitario
The characters are in-
between Criollo and
forestero

16.
• Crop establishment
• Propagation
 Seed propagation - normally used . Seed viability will be loss within
short period of time.
 Vegetative propagation -experimental studies.
 Bud grafted cocoa plants-in multiplying high yielding varieties.

17.
• Seed Propagation
• 1. Pods, taken from selected cocoa lines, are opened to get fresh seeds
• 2. seeds are thoroughly washed and rubbed with dry sand to remove the
mucilage layer.
• 3.Seeds can be sown in a sand bed-
• Just after germination, sprouted seeds should be transferred into the polythene
bags.
•
• or
• can be directly planted in a poly bag with the size of 20cm x 10cm filled with
equal mixture of top soil, cow dung and sand.
• It takes about 8-10 days for germination.
• When the seedlings are about 3-4 months,
• and when they come a height of 30cm, they are ready for transplanting.