Cocoa Tree

About Cocoa Tree: 

• It is an important plantation crop grown for chocolates around the world. It is known as a crop of humid tropics and is native to the Amazon basin of South America.
• Cocoa trees grow about 20 degree snorth and south of the equator in regions with warm weather and abundant rain, including West Africa and South America. 
• Required climatic conditions:
  • It can be grown up to 300 m above mean sea level. 
  • Rainfall: It requires an annual rainfall of 1500-2000 mm.
  • Temperature: The temperature range of 15°-39°C with optimum of 25°C is considered ideal.
  • Soil: It requires deep and well drained soils. Majority of area under Cocoa cultivation is on clay loam and sandy loam soil.
  • It grows well in the pH range of 6.5 to 7.0.
• Shade requirement: It was evolved as an under-storey crop in the Amazonian forests. Thus commercial cultivation of cocoa can be taken up in plantations where 50 per cent of light is ideally available. 
• Major producing regions in the world: About 70 percent of the world’s cocoa beans come from four West African countries: Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon.
• In India, it is mainly cultivated in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu mainly as intercrop with Arecanut and Coconut.

Q1: What are Plantation crops?

These are defined as a group of commercial crops perennial in nature, cultivated extensively in tropical and subtropical situations in a large and contiguous areas. They include coconut, areca nut, oil palm, cocoa, cashew nut, tea, coffee and rubber.

Source: Will chocolate’s future hinge on success of growing cocoa in the lab?