Black pod disease profile: Monitoring its outbreak in Southwest, Nigeria

Abstract

11Black pod disease (BPD) has been and still remains a major threat to cocoa farmers worldwide 12 due to its annual recurrence, fast spread and highly destructive nature. The disease has caused 13 great anxiety in many cocoa producing communities due to the inability of indigenous cocoa 14 farmers to determine when and where BPD outbreak will take place. Twelve (12) stations were 15 structured from four important cocoa-producing States in the Southwestern region of Nigeria. An 16 investigation of BPD outbreak was conducted in 2015/2016 within these regions. Infected cocoa 17 pods and topsoil samples were collected for laboratory analysis. Pests attack, cherelle wilt and 18 BPD outbreak were seasonal with 50% chances of occurrence in all the stations. Black pod 19diseases outbreak was recorded in all the States (100%) during the rainy season. The disease was 20 at its peak in August 2015 in almost all the stations (station 1 (30.0%), station 3 (23.0%), station 21 11 (16.0%), station 4 (9.0%), station 5 (7.0%), and station 8 (3.0%). The height of disease 22 severity was in September 2015 (station 1 (100.0%), station 3 (96.7%), station 5 (85.7%), station 23 11 (84.3%), and station 4 (70.0%), with station 8 reaching the 100% mark in October 2015. Most 24 cocoa farmlands are now being abandoned, unless concerted efforts are made to effectively 25 manage the disease, BPD will greatly reduce cocoa production in Nigeria and around the world. 26

The effects of the phytochemistry of cocoa on the food chemistry of chocolate(s) and how disease resistance in cocoa can be improved using CRISPR/Cas9 technology

“…The term “cocoa beans” simply refer to the seeds found in the fruit of the Theobroma cacao tree (Cocoa “English” or Cacao “Spanish”) covered by a layer of sweet spongy pulp ( Voora et al, 2019 ). Presently, the economic value of cocoa can only be rivaled by few cash crops ( Etaware, 2019 , Etaware and Adedeji, 2019 , Etaware et al, 2020 )…”

“…2 ). unfortunately, the yield per hectare of land in West and Central Africa is very low (200–700 kg per ha), as a result over 40% of cocoa farmers within that region are running at a loss, and the only available option is to totally abandon their cocoa farmlands or sell it to other investors ( Etaware, 2019 , Etaware and Adedeji, 2019 , Etaware et al, 2020 ). To turn this situation around, most cocoa farmers had to intensify their efforts in cocoa cultivation by increasing their farm size to further offset the Production-Loss ratio.…”

“…worldwide ( Fister et al, 2018b ). black pod disease is a major limiting factor to global cocoa production ( Etaware, 2019 , Etaware and Adedeji, 2019 , Etaware et al, 2020 , Obiakara et al, 2020 ). The CRISPR/Cas9 method of genome editing, proposed in this article as a potential tool for production of viable transgenic cocoa varieties in Africa is described below:…”