PEST AND DISEASE MANAGEMENT IN COCOA FARMS
(FOUR DAY SHORT COURSE FOR FARM MANAGERS, TECHNICIANS AND TRAINERS)

Pre-requisite: No pre-requisites

Course description: Importance and role of pest and diseases in cocoa production.   Introduction to major pest and diseases affecting cocoa – rodents, parrots, borers, witches’ broom disease, black pod disease and frosty pod disease.  Other minor diseases.  Practical sessions on the identification of the various pests and diseases – symptomology.  Causal agent and life cycle and principles of management.  Threats of new diseases and pests and approaches to prevention of diseases. Surveillance methodologies to determine the prevalence and severity of infection (practicals). Integrated management of pest and diseases including the use of resistant planting material, cultural and agronomic approaches.  Use of chemical (insecticides, fungicides) and biological (biopesticides) approaches within an integrated management framework. The use of CRC innovations in the control of cocoa diseases and pests.  At the end of the course, students will be able to identify the pest and disease of cocoa, determine the level of intensity and severity in the field and manage the diseases in a cost-effective manner using appropriate integrated pest management approaches.