Most of the cocoa’s production is done by small holders using traditional methods. Apparently, there is not enough investment in increasing the productivity of cocoa trees despite the decrease in yields and the expectation of a global shortage.
In Israel, cocoa is not grown, and we have little experience with this special tree.
With that being said, we have knowledge and experience on growing various fruit trees, adaptation to climate change, adaptation to local conditions, developing and adopting new crops and technologies.
In the recent months, we, Farmentor, have started a new project in the Philippines aimed to implement modern technologies for growing cocoa, an initiative of a businesswoman with a vision.
The main challenges we are dealing with are:
- Grafted / non grafted seedlings
- Planting spacings
- Canopy management
- Soil characteristics improvement (structure and fertility)
- Irrigation / fertigation
- Substrate and containers for seedlings production
- Soilless culture
- Plant protection (PP)
- QC & QA (Quality Control & Quality Assurance)
Following this little experience, we have gained, I dare to say that the tree responds quickly and well to the improving of growing conditions. Like any other tree, we expect to see measurable results in a few years (1-3).
Picture No. 1 is from March22, all the other pictures are of the same tree on June 22.
