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Climate change is stressing rainforests where the highly sensitive cocoa bean grows, but chocolate lovers need not despair, say companies that are researching other ways to grow cocoa or develop ...
Cocoa beans and cocoa harvest processing. Ghana's cocoa production grew an average of 16 per cent between 2000 and 2003. [18] Cocoa has a long production cycle, far longer than many other tropical crops, and new hybrid varieties need over five years to come into production, and a further 10 to 15 years for the tree to reach its full bearing potential.
The majority of cocoa farms are located in Ivory Coast and Ghana. [2] In Ghana, Cocoa contributes 64% of all exports. [6] Traditional cocoa farms are planted in the shade among other crops and trees. They are especially found in the tropical rainforest areas. [7] Farming cocoa beans is a long process and many factors can affect the farm's yield.
The crop is grown in Ivory Coast mostly by smallholder farmers planting on 1 to 3 hectares. [10] The pods containing the beans are harvested when a sufficient number are ripe, opened to separate the seeds and pulp from the outer rind, and the seeds and pulp are usually allowed to ferment somewhere on the farm, before the seeds are dried in a central location.
The trees that grow the beans need specific conditions. They can only thrive about 20 degrees north and south of the Earth’s equator, in high humidity and the tropical conditions of the rainforests.
The cocoa bean, also known as cocoa (/ ˈ k oʊ. k oʊ /) or cacao (/ k ə ˈ k aʊ /), [1] is the dried and fully fermented seed of Theobroma cacao, the cacao tree, from which cocoa solids (a mixture of nonfat substances) and cocoa butter (the fat) can be extracted. Cacao trees are native to the Amazon rainforest.
Just days after Israel's agriculture research centre, the Volcani Institute, sent 140 seedlings to a facility in southern Israel to study how this tropical plant could be grown in dry conditions ...
Cocoa flourishes in areas that are not more than 20 degrees north or south of the equator. [8] The trees respond well in regions with high temperature and distributed rainfall. In Nigeria, the cocoa tree is grown from seedlings which are raised in nurseries, when the seedlings reach a height of 3 cm they are transplanted at a distance of 3 to 4 ...